Bruce's Oral Health Fund

In Fall of 2011, Bruce was diagnosed with stage IV throat cancer.  At that time the cancer had spread to one of his lymph nodes and wrapped around his carotid artery, making it inoperable.  He underwent aggressive chemotherapy and radiation, and battled many setbacks and complications.  Since then he has had multiple setbacks and complications as well.  One of those is his oral health.  Due to the radiation to his neck area, his teeth have mostly disintigrated and are breaking off.  He has a few teeth left, mostly broken, and about 17 roots in his gums.  This causes him consistent pain and makes it difficult for him to eat, which poses a whole other set of problems related to his nutrition.  He struggles to maintain good nutrition and a healthy weight.  
Since he has had radiation to that area, it puts him at high risk for osteoradionecrosis (death of the jaw bone) of his jaw after extraction.  Because of this, the extraction procedure needs to be performed by an oral surgeon, and currently the free clinics in his area do not offer this service.  He will be required to have hyperbaric oxygen treatment prior to and after surgery, for over 30 times.  His insurance will cover the HBO treatments, but not the oral surgery or dentures.   I have created this account in the hopes to help my dad pay for his oral surgery, dentures, and gas to and from his HBO treatments which is 2 hours round trip.