Everyone from my childhood knows my story. Even some people I know now. I have always stood out, physically, medically and appearance wise. Even if not clear to a stranger; I knew. They knew. My smile has never been a priority for me until now. After 12 years of different medications/cancer/autoimmune disease and treatments along with wearing a mask for over a decade, it took a huge toll on my oral health. As soon as I was told I didn't need to wear a mask anymore due to my cancer, covid hit, a mask mandate. Brushing and maintaining the health of my teeth and gums was never a priority growing up, keeping me alive was. Everything else was just semantics. But now, I need help. I finally got insurance after 3 years through my work, and I'm ready to start the long and unfortunately painful process of rebuilding a healthy smile. Not only for appearance, couldn't care less about that, but it would be nice. But about actual health. I get so sick from sores/infections caused my poor oral hygiene. I am only able to use mouth rinse in order for any relief due to bristles whittling down the density of my teeth. Unfortunately my insurance doesn't cover it because its an elective issue, anything is appreciated but never expected. I'm just trying to get the ball rolling rather than waiting until they all fall out and unfortunately its a little more expensive than I was expecting.