Support Liz's Urgent Dental Restoration- A Smile Fund

For those of you who don’t know, my fiance, Elizabeth Goldberg, is a chronically ill individual. She has Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, Gastroparesis, GERD, and other potential GI conditions. Throughout the diagnostic journey, she has gone through periods where she cannot eat or drink at all, resulting in multi-month hospitalizations and medication trials. While she is thankfully in a more stable place due to medication management, the erosion from her GI symptoms have caused severe decay to her teeth. Alongside this, the prolonged periods of malnutrition have also caused the general health of her mouth to be stripped of nutrition, resulting in further decay and brittle teeth. Within the last year, it has been determined that she needs at least 8 crowns, a root canal, and resin/fillings on almost every other tooth. Since she is a Masters student at Boston University, trying to prepare herself for a job that works with her evolving health concerns, Liz and I do not know how to afford the kind of work needed to save her teeth while on a student budget.

She is in pain constantly. Her teeth throb, her gums bleed, and she even broke a molar while eating a potato in October (which she was able to remove with half of her wisdom teeth- it was what we could afford). She is afraid to eat many things for fear of breaking teeth. She can’t even smile without someone commenting on the decay. We recently started the process of a few of her crowns because the teeth were about to break... we hope we can be approved for some type of care credit loan, but are even nervous for that despite the medical necessity.

Teeth are so important for eating, speaking, singing, and quality of life, yet restoration is often inaccessible. Quoted at about $27.5k, and even with multiple insurance changes, we are still left with just under $17k of estimated work to save her mouth. It’s truly a shame that dental insurance does not offer much assistance with restoration, despite the risk of local and systemic infection. Liz already deals with chronic illness symptoms, and delaying her dental work will only increase her health risk. Additionally, she has faced many periods of not having any insurance at all, which has only made the problem worse. Delaying care will only result in worsening decay and breakage- due to the nature of the problems, it is and has always been out of her hands.

Liz and I are also in a tight situation in general, with her inheriting a house that requires a lot of work due to estate neglect. While we are eternally grateful to have the privilege of a home, the process has put us in the position of paying an apartment’s rent and a mortgage for over a year, on top of thousands of dollars to remediate severe black mold that was not covered by insurance- something standing in between us living there or even selling the property. In the meantime, we are using minimal excess funds, trying to budget and prioritize the teeth in order of urgency, but we are not moving as quickly as her mouth needs.

The cover photo is from over two years ago, one of the last up-close photos where Liz truly smiled. It is also one of the last photos before her teeth started to fully chip and break. Liz deserves to smile without feeling self-conscious about the acid-erosion spots that she could not control. She deserves to eat, and simply exist, without constant mouth pain. She is dedicated to her future, so please help us make sure that the quality of her life will match the amount of work she has put in to achieve her goals. If you can help us afford this life-changing restoration, we would be eternally grateful for your help.