Moira J. Saucer needs dental work to end pain & eat normally

Our friend, Moira J. Saucer, a brilliant writer, editor, and deeply empathetic person who always goes out of her way to help others, is now in urgent need of our help. Sick, living barely above the poverty level, and coping with the burden of chronic illness and pain, Moira is living on the very margins of a society that abandons those without resources, all too often leaving them facing an unthinkable present and a future of even further hardship.

Moira is in deep distress and in pain that impacts her life on all levels: physical, emotional, spiritual, material. She is in dire need of attending to the alleviation of severe and unremitting, chronic mouth and gum pain. She has been suffering for years; at this point there is a necessity for immediate, complicated dental care. Moira is currently facing necessary extractions of most of her remaining teeth, some broken near the gum line. Immediate work needs to be done on 29 teeth, (upper and lower, front and molars). Most, or all of her teeth, first need to be extracted to pave the way for further treatments to lessen extraordinary pain levels, followed by the manufacture of basic prosthetic teeth (dentures) that will enable her to eat.

Moira’s current life situation is deeply undermining her mental, emotional, and physical health. Despite her ongoing misery, she was able to write a book of exceptional poetry about her experiences in rural Alabama that was published by Ethel Zine Press in 2023, and she spends time when possible helping to manage—on a volunteer basis—a micro poetry press, Ice Floe Press. Despite pain, suffering, and despair, Moira believes in the importance of writing, visual art, and creative expression in our difficult world and hopes to be able to contribute so much more. However, her health is deteriorating to the point where this is becoming increasingly difficult for her to achieve.

To give more context: Moira was diagnosed in 2003 with chronic Lyme arthritis and fibromyalgia and since then has been unable to afford even basic dental care on a consistent basis. In 2004, Moira was fired from her full-time job in public relations after the onset of chronic pain conditions. She worked part time when able but faced increasing disability and depletion of all her savings. In 2013, she was forced to go on full disability, which provides only a very basic income, and transitioned to social security when she reached full retirement age. Moira cared for her mother when she was dying of Stage 4 breast cancer and, for many years, financially helped her diabetic brother who suffered from mental illness.

Since the deaths of her mother and brother, 2016 and 2019 respectively, Moira has had almost no immediate family support and lacks any funds to deal with her increasingly severe dental issues, including her decreasing ability to chew food. At this point, she has only one tiny spot in her mouth, where with intense pain, she can chew and eat food.

After a series of consultations at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Dentistry, senior faculty recommended that Moira seek care at the Advanced General Dentistry Clinic. This clinic provides low-cost dental care for medically compromised patients with limited means. The professional staff has the experience and training to work with patients like Moira who suffer from chronic, disabling medical conditions. This level of excellent, medically appropriate care is not available in Moira's local area, where the price of even a single surgical extraction can be upwards of $600. Moira is a remarkable researcher and has looked far and wide at options and possibilities, to find that travel out of the country (for example to dental clinics in Mexico) would cost upwards of $25,000.

To put this in perspective: Moira has put aside any necessary attention to other issues and problems such as badly needed home repairs, which places her in further distress, and lives without enough heat to keep her adequately warm in winter and air-conditioning to stay cool in the scorching hot summers; and being disabled, Moira is isolated and immobilized at home, where basic food needs, rent payments, and health insurance are her main outlays. These core monthly expenses, in themselves, are almost too much for her on their own. Moira cannot continue to live with the pain she is in. The potential for far-reaching disease and further disability, without basic urgent care to deal with her deteriorating teeth and gums, is definitely possible, if not probable.

The total cost of dental care to alleviate the most basic issues (no high-end implants, posts, fancy new teeth) at the University of Alabama program, which has agreed to accept her as an extremely low-income person with complex disability, is an estimated $12,000 US. Based on research she and her friends have conducted, similar care elsewhere in the US can be as high as $20,000 depending on the patient's medical needs, geographic location, and materials used in prosthetics.

The following is a breakdown of how the donated fund will be spent for Moira to get the help she needs at the University of Alabama at Birmingham:

Consult with evaluation & x-rays

$500

Estimated simple and surgical extractions & anesthesia

$4300

Prosthetics, Fittings, & Adjustments (dentures)

$3200

Estimated travel to and from University of Alabama at Birmingham Dentistry School (bus transportation, lodging & food) for up to seven trips for assessments, surgeries, prosthetic fittings, and follow up appointments.

$4000

Estimated Total:

$12,000USD

We hope you can help us reach this fundraising goal so that Moira can be free of dental disease and achieve improved health to return to a productive life as a writer, editor, and artist.

To reiterate:

Moira has immediate need of long-overdue dental work including deep cleanings, panoramic X-rays, extensive surgery with anesthesia, and prosthetics. The cost of receiving this type of care in the United States is prohibitive.

If these funds cannot be raised, Moira, a truly beautiful and caring soul, is facing not being able to eat or chew at all, possibly even as soon as the next three months. We are hoping that as many of us can contribute, whether smaller or larger amounts to this campaign, so we can prepare the way for Moira to achieve improved health. Let’s join together to help Moira achieve some level of comfort and fundamental cessation of this formidable ongoing pain and anguish she endures each day as she tries to eat, a basic human need.