<div>UPDATE:
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<div> This is “MouthOff” Phase II, and the story continues with my wonderful, amazing treatment team at Mesa’s A.T. Still University Advanced Oral Care…. I saw the “Lord” Again yesterday when I went in for an adjustment to UPPITY, the name I’ve given to my upper healing denture, which I’ve been struggling with since all my extractions on 02/03/25.
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<div> NOTE: let me be very clear about the detours I’ve taken since this oral journey began on July 13, 2024, when I had a launch problem at the Party can read about in my previous posts here. When I lost my daughter over two years ago, I also lost the financial security she’s provided for my dental and other health care expenses, like eyewear. Believe me I’m not going to launch a GoFundMe and accept donations from people, but go around dangling my jewelry or Coach bags. I sold EVERYTHING I OWNED OF ANY VALUE last year when I moved into my sweet little 367 sq ft studio in downtown Phoenix. Instead of Designer eyewear I buy my own frames on Amazon and have my glasses made at Walmart!
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<div> She certainly spoiled me with thousand dollar eyewear, but I can see just as clearly they Walmart lenses! TO BE CONTINUED AFTER DINNER!
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<div><strong>A time lag in updates has occurred for a very serious reason. I made a foolish mistake and gave all of the $6500 raised by this GoFundMe to an entity I thoughtI could trust. Luckily last week I managed to recover 100% of my money, but only after leaving a message on the voicemail where I had been attempting to secure dental treatment, calmly inviting the CEO of the organization, as a courtesy, to appear on a Podcast with me to explain or attempt to validate why they kept my money and provided no treatment over the course of two months. Overnight a voice mail was left for me explaining “the check was in the mail” and indeed within two days I recouped the balance of my GoFundMe account.</strong>
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<div><strong> If you’ve ever belonged to AAA, long before Google Maps or any GPS app could help get you to your destination, AAA provided something called a “TripTik”; page after “paper page” of directions, landmarks , exits, on-ramps.</strong>
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<div><strong>I need a “GoFundMe-TIK”, to highlight warnings and give dental insight!</strong>
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<div><strong> I’ve ALWAYS been the kind of person who, when given the choice after reaching the end of a long, tiring road, never hesitated to choose the ROAD LESS TRAVELED, to begin a new and fearless adventure! BUT I’M TIRED OF TOOTHLESS TRAVEL!</strong>
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<div><strong>So I have a couple of additional serious dilemmas. DENTIST NUMBER ONE, THE GOOD GUY AND HIS WIFE who helped me launch my road to dental and medical health recovery this past summer, and who continue to track my progress despite not being able to continue starring in this “Docu-Dentureé” in starring roles, made me promise to keep a secret about something wonderful they did for me when they realized how seriously my health was being impacted by my dental condition and recognized the financial logjam which had been building due to the slow donations.</strong>
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<div><strong> So I will keep that secret as requested, but because I am a prolific storyteller (and I’m known for telling truthful dramatic descriptions of my adventures), tonight I need YOUR HELP. It’s okay if you can’t donate $2…. Honestly I’m not in the position to donate $2 to help YOU either, or I wouldn’t be writing this. (But there might be other ways I could help you, so hang in there and remember THIS: THE OPEN IS MIGHTIER THAN THE SWORD…… in a future update I’m going to explain that by telling you how I lost one of the biggest stories of my journalism career simply by asking someone how they spelled their name.)</strong>
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<div><strong> For now, I’m going to ask if you would please post my GoFundMe QR code on your Facebook or any other available social media, share to groups, etc.</strong>
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<div><strong>I didn’t realize how badly my GoFundMe performance had tracked with my lack of networking knowledge. If you share my QR code for me it will be far more valuable than an $2 donation. What if 200 people donate $2 just because you shared my QR code JUST ONE TIME FOR ME??</strong>
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<div><strong> </strong>Updating my GoFundMe story on a regular basis has been the biggest challenge of my entire writing career. I’ve been told that I am an excellent writer, but I have to be honest and say I don’t know how I could possibly put into words what has happened to me since July 13 when I launched the GoFundMe at a party here where I live, Which I described in the original story.
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<div>I started out with the best dentist Phoenix has to offer at Smile Dental Clinic, Dr. Eddie and his wife Toni Allen came to the party to meet the people who were my friends and to support my endeavor.
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<div>Not only was I not very astute about what a GoFundMe really is and how it works., I think that is a result of my lack of understanding of my responsibilities of providing regular updates was that it was a little bit of a flop. I most certainly appreciated everything. Everybody gave me .
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<div>The donations came in very slowly and the original goal was almost $40,000 and my health was deteriorating as I was waiting to accumulate enough money to get started in treatment, Dr. Harsini’s Wife and told me that they were concerned about my health and that I had accumulated enough funds to just go straight into dentures and I just had such a hard time accepting that but in the meantime, Prior to that meeting, ,someone where I live had given me a brochure, patient paperwork and the business card of the CEO of a downtown Phoenix, Dental Clinic and college announced that he had made arrangements for me to get work done over there. I told Dr. Harsini about the paperwork from the Dental Clinic in downtown Phoenix and he had heard of the place and he told me that considering how my health was being impacted that he wanted me to go over and check it out and he most certainly wanted me to take advantage of anything that I could over there if it was my best health interest. I went for my first visit, not knowing what to expect. People were nice, but they were slow and not very attentive. I probably didn’t even see the three times that I visited over there. I never saw a 10 people.
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<div>however, they did give me a price. It was remarkable and I called Dr. Harsini’s Wife surprisingly enough even though they had given me treatment to try and keep me comfortable. They refunded 100% that I spent there because they wanted me to have the money to get my teeth fixed, I can’t say how highly I think of them.
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<div>So now I’m pretty excited about going back for my second visit to the downtown clinic and I’m starting to feel a little strange about it. Dentist was talking to me like he didn’t even know who I was when I met him at the previous visit., And then he told me to take my sunglasses off and then he recognized me on that second visit I paid $6500 which was payment in full for the complete treatment of upper arch implants as advertised. Because I was feeling uncomfortable, I asked a friend to go back with me on my service visit and sure enough something changed between the second and third visit and the whole entire treatment plan had changed and when there was no explanation and I asked a lot of questions and I was very concerned. The dentist seem very put off by the fact that I was being inquisitive about what he was going to be doing to me.
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<div>High anxiety about going to a dentist is very normal and over the course of eight years of dental school, a dentist is taught how to deal with the level of anxiety patients can have, but my anxiety was not acceptable. I wrote an email asking to have a sit down meeting with my Dentist because I really just didn’t understand what we were going to be doing and I just very clearly stated how I felt about the situation. I didn’t say he was a good dentist about Dentist. I just said that I wanted to have a sit down. I wanted to have an explanation face-to-face about what we were going to be doing sent that email and it was intercepted by someone at the Dental Clinic who called me. Infuriated about my letter I stood up for myself in that letter in no uncertain terms and I guess people just aren’t used to having a 76-year-old woman who weighs 99 pounds stand up for herself shortly after that abusive phone call. I had a text message that said I should come in at 9:30 for an appointment the next morning, and I simply thought that finally the dentist was going to sit down and talk to me, but no CEO of the entire organization called me into his office and told me I The dentist and the oral surgeon were not comfortable working with me anymore and he handed me an envelope and told me that inside was a place I could go that was probably as affordable as they were and I left and I was stunned.
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<div><strong> He fired me, so to speak.</strong>
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<div>However, I was in too much pain and distressed to be infuriated so for two days I tried to figure out what do you do when you’re by yourself you have no one to advocate for you. Remember all my life advocated for other people suddenly here I am wishing I had a big teddy bear standing next to me to tell me everything was gonna be OK honey.
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<div>So I did what every other lonely, scared old woman would do: I Googled “Dental” and I came up with A.T Still University in Mesa Arizona.
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<div>I called and I had an appointment the very next morning when I walked into the building and into the waiting room, there were easily 50 people sitting there and another 30 people standing in line waiting to be registered, everyone was so nice and so kind and greeted me and took me back with my paperwork to do a panoramic x-ray and then when they Asked me to open my mouth and Bite down on the centerpiece of the x-ray machine, they saw that my bridge was hanging down on my tongue and I couldn’t bite on the panoramic x-ray of course they couldn’t believe it and they Call Teresa supervisor, who came in and conferred with them, examined my mouth and said that they needed to walk me across the campus to the other building and make sure that I got treated immediately . She turned to me and said “you need to see somebody over in our graduate clinic immediately.”
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<div>The head of the x-ray department walked me across the campus to the graduate building into the building, through a packed waiting room, back into the patient treatment area, where a team of three people were already waiting for me. back into the most amazing teaching college atmosphere I’ve ever seen in my life. . There was over 200 people in the building Dentist chairs line the whole front of the building, set up exactly the way every dentist office is set up today clean professional.
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<div>I was seated and A young man came over. Introduced himself as my resident student. And explained that he would be with me throughout the entire course of my treatment there I was just amazed this was not just the opposite of what I had experienced at the downtown Phoenix clinic, but it was like I had Landed on another planet!
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<div>. These Young Dentist, are graduate students who have finished eight years of dental college and are doing a year of residency specializing in their field Interest, which would be implants in my case .
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<div>I knew the day had anticipated treating a serious case because I was present when the supervisor at the undergraduate portion of the college called over to the graduate college and said they had to send me over because it was a very serious situation.
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<div>My resident Dentist politely asked if he could take a look in my mouth which he did and that I could tell that we were really following protocol every step of the way; everybody was, it’s just the way it ran. It’s a school and it’s understandable...
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<div>but I could see his eyes as he was examining my mouth, and I warned him before he looked that it would look like an atomic mom had gone off inside my mouth so he gently pulled my teeth back, tried not to hurt me, and tried to avoid the dangling six tooth bridge and then he politely said “I’ll be right back. I saw the look in his eyes.
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<div>He came back with a man who is the nicest person that I’ve ever met in my life and believe it or not his name is Dr. <strong>Lord</strong>. He was faculty in the department and would be overseeing everything they did with me and orchestrating my treatment plan the entire way. . He was warm, thorough , friendly and calm, professional and kind as he gently examined my mouth he was extremely thorough And I could tell that my treatment was going to be a real teaching experience for everybody. Dr. Lord.. excused himself for a moment and he came back with two other men in their 60s dentists and all three of them were bending over me, looking into my mouth, thoroughly examining me and nodding, and conferring with each other in a “Short hand language” only Dentists could, Understand , but I had been living with this situation for so long I knew what they were saying.
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<div>I was overwhelmed by the attention in the thoroughness, the explanations and the questions and the information they gave me. The resident student Dentist came back at the end and sat down with me and explained in absolute detail every single thing they were going to be doing with me and every single thing it would cost. My heart stopped when I heard the cost; it was going to be perhaps 15% of what I would have paid with the market rate implant cost of Phoenix Arizona
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<div>I completely understood and agreed with the treatment plan. I not one time had I had a conversation with the dentist at the downtown Phoenix clinic that lasted longer than three minutes and I was always laying back in a chair with sunglasses on and he was standing over me. These people were sitting next to me and talking to me and looking me in the eye .. so finally, I had a timeframe and by Christmas hopefully, I would have a chance to get a handle on my health again. I would never again eat another bowl of cream rice for breakfast..
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<div>This wonderful and miraculous visit was on a Tuesday. The dental technician that worked with Dr. Lord and my dentist told me she would be with me also throughout the entire time I was there and she walked me out to the front with me to make sure I got in as quickly as possible, and she said goodbye and I came home and had hope
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<div>They made an appointment for me to come back at which time they would remove the dangling broken six unit denture.
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<div>I could tell Doctor Lord was not happy that I was leaving with that denture in my mouth, but this was following teaching protocol. There are a certain steps you have to take in order to get to the finish line. make impressions and put me into my first set of teeth for the healing.time I would require prior to the implants Surgery; not everybody can get same-day implants. Because it’s a college there’s a tremendous amount of protocol in immediate treatment would mean breaking protocol.
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<div>So I went home and the next morning after spending five hours being examined and looked at and poked and prodded. I woke up and felt like a fire engine had smashed me in the face. I’m embarrassed to say that I cried. I hurt so bad.
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<div>So I called and the woman that talked to me the day before was the woman who answered the phone and she got me in the morning and Doctor Lord Took his time to numb me so that it wouldn’t hurt to break this tooth off the route that it was dangling from, With six teeth hanging on it when I was finally numb, he came over and he was looking at my mouth and touching the side of my face and he said very quietly do you remember what we used to do when our kids had were gonna lose a tooth and I said “yeah I know you’re gonna have to do it so just go ahead.!” He laughed and he said “I already did it.!”
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<div><strong> UPDATE LOOP CLOSED:</strong>
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<div><strong> On 12/12 at 8:30 am all of my teeth will be extracted and Last week I had an appointment to do a wax fitting for the upper and lower healing dentures. I practiced speaking and they were impressed by the fact that I was very determined to get through the four months of having to wear those dentures before I went back in for the implants so far the total cost, including the delivery of those dentures on the date of my extractions is $3600 and then four months later the implant dentures will cost an additional $2000 each. I opted for a less expensive type of implant denture. It’s called a snap in but if over that four months period my GoFundMe becomes more active I would be able to afford a more quality and lasting type of implant denture. Now I’m going to promise myself and you that I’m gonna keep up with doing this on a regular basis and I’m asking that if you ever have a GoFundMe of your own to let me know and I will make sure I put you in every bit of social media that I have access to and that would be well over 100,000 people right now</strong>
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Anonymous

noel lintner

Faray Concierge

Deb & Reuben Hernandez

Tina Gill

Mark Lienau

Samantha Asher

A.T.Still University Advanced Oral Care Snap-In Dentures

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A.T.Still University Advanced Oral Care Snap-In Dentures

Still $15,130 to go. Help us build momentum.