Jordi is in need of help

Hello Friends,
Thanks so much for taking a second to read this. As I sit here writing this, I feel so awful that I’m creating this, that I’m asking you all once again for help. You all have given me so much just by being in my life and consistently showing up for me and I want to thank you for that. But I have been wracking my brain the last few days, trying to figure out what to do to solve this problem and not continue having panic attacks or getting depressed about how stuck I feel; how trapped I feel. And I can’t do it any longer. I need help and I have to ask for it or else I’m going to find myself in a dark space. And someone told me recently that you can rob your friends of joy or kindness or the opportunity to love and help and show their care for their friend if you don’t ask them for help. So I’m hoping that is indeed the case. 

I’ve always had dental issues since I was young. I was born with not much enamel on my teeth at all so I had teeth issues very often. I got my first filling when I was like 4. As I grew up, I began to hate going to the dentist and it quickly became a phobia of mine. It still is today. When I was a teenager, my dentist realized I had developed an incredible underbite- my bottom jaw was a lot farther forward than my top jaw. (Pictures from about a year prior to surgery) 

It caused a lot of bullying to happen and pain in my jaw. So my parents decided I needed to get oral surgery and began starting the process around 15. (Xrays and specs from 2000, 2 years prior to surgery)


I got the surgery right after I graduated high school in 2002. It was a horrible month of my jaw being wired shut, my meals being liquid and many following dental visits. The surgery did not go as I hoped and though it did pull my bottom jaw back a bit, I never quite had a correct bite. In fact, the way my front teeth were set, they took the brunt of the force any time I bit. (Pics from Years after surgery)  Those front teeth were loose right after the surgery and I was told that because of that force on them, I would eventually lose my two front teeth. It was a horrible thing to go through and I was never actually satisfied with the results. In fact, I had been very self conscious about my mouth and bite before the surgery and I had hoped and dreamed that this surgery would finally allow me to be ok with my mouth, my face. But it didn’t. In fact it made it worse. I do not like my smile and now I have been in pain because my two front teeth, after 18 years of force on them with every bite, they are tired of the constant beating and they are letting me know that by hurting. My two front teeth have got to be pulled out and after visits to literally four dentists, I finally found a dentist who knows what can be done to not only remove the teeth that are causing pain, but can give me a very long bridge that will be placed across 5 teeth, two of them made, that will be as if I had teeth there and they feel confident it might even be placed and adjusted to the point that my bite might be fixed and my smile restored. I couldn’t believe it when he told me and after a lot of thanking him and crying in the dentist chair, I was given the estimate for the whole process. $10,552. I began to again cry because my moment of thinking there was a possibility of no pain and a smile I could bare to look at, all of it was thrown out the window. But I need to get these teeth removed. They have caused many infections and an abscess that I had to get treated for at the hospital because it was so bad. I could get something called a flipper, like a partial denture, but every dentist I’ve talked to says they are the cheapest solution for a reason. They would be painful, I would not be able to eat with them and they do not last very long. I really do not want to go down that road. I would really love to have front teeth that I can use to eat and bite with and that can be in a smile that I’m proud of. 

I left the dentist that day with the estimate in my hand and wanted to run into the street. It felt so overwhelming and impossible.
 I am tired of having to deal with this issue, of talking to dentists, of not being able to stand my face in the mirror because of a smile that I went thru hell for and it still is horrible and causing me medical issues. And the possibility of that all changing was one of the happiest and exciting moments for me. But it was very quickly something I could never have because I can never afford what it costs. My insurance can cover about $1900 and I have something called CareCredit that I am able to put a few thousand on so I can pay off gradually. But the rest of it I need to pay up front. The dentist has no in house payment plans.

Friends,  I need help financially. I have a few things of some value that I will be selling, I have some savings that I will obviously be using, but I still am in need of probably around $6,000. Ooof. Just typing thathere makes me feel sick to my stomach. 

I know right now, we are all struggling financially. We are actually all struggling mentally and physically as well. And I am nottrying to give you all a sob story to make you all feel like you have to help me. Every word I have put down is the absolute truth. In fact, it’s way more than I would like you all to know and are even things I would go out of the way to hide. But I am at a loss. I need help. If you have read this, thank you so much for allowing me to share my story. If you could help, I would be beyond grateful. If you can share this, I would greatly appreciate it. If you could send me some encouraging words, I would greatly appreciate that as well. I am so very scared to once again have to go thru a four hour long procedure, and I am almost more scared putting out this ask. But the possibility of a pain free and self-hate free life is greater than those fears. So I want to try to have this surgery, but I need the funds to do so. 

Thank you so much for listening and for your support in any and all ways. I hope you are well and happy. 

With Love and Gratitude,
Jordi Montes