Putting a DENT in Dental Health Coverage

- 3 MINUTE READ -


***THIS GO FUND ME HAS BEEN UPDATED A YEAR FROM THE ORIGINAL POST TO INCLUDE: New traumas, and new consultations with a dentist, endodontist and prosthetist, to give a better understanding of treatments that I still need and costs that will need to be covered at the time of treatments. ***


From the beginning: 

On July 11th 2019, I was biking home from an evening of watching fireworks at the canal around 3:00am when I was struck by a car that was turning right at an intersection. I hit the ground face forward which jostled my brain enough to completely disorient me from my surroundings, thus resulting later on in the loss of about 4 hours of my memory following the accident. I have yet to regain those memories and still only know what I’ve been told by the other person I was biking with at the time. A bystander called 911 immediately, and I was taken by ambulance and admitted to Montreal General Hospital just after/around four in the morning. 


While admitted, they ran x-rays to ensure I hadn’t injured any points throughout my spine and then stitched up the laceration on my lower lip. I obtained multiple injuries, many of which healed within a few weeks and of which were minor. Some of the injuries I obtained were: a minor traumatic brain injury (TBI; also known as a minor concussion), multiple scrapes, bruises, and cuts on my face and legs, bruising and cuts on my neck (from the pavement as well as my bike helmet), a sprained/injured index finger on my left hand, the worst full-body whiplash I've ever experienced, and more. 


The “more” is why I am speaking out to you through Go Fund Me today. I hit the ground face first thus putting my best and my only smile onto the pavement below which resulted in extensive dental injury. I lost over half of one of my upper front teeth, cracked two teeth over from that, shifted the entire upper front 6 teeth I have slightly inwards toward my tongue, and split my lower and upper lips. As mentioned before, my lower lip laceration was debrided and stitched (they pulled out tooth and pavement fragments) and my upper lip laceration was small enough to leave alone to heal on its own. 


From this accident, I am now the responsible recipient of more than a few costly dental treatments, including now four root canals, one tooth restoration and filling and potentially a second tooth restoration and filling, a tooth extraction and a dental implant or a prefabricated dental post and crown. All of these have costs which may be amplified by potential complications (bone grafts, which are around $100 and a 3 month healing period, and crown lengthening, which rough around $400-$500 and again, long-term healing period), and this doesn’t even begin to include follow-up exams, at-home dental hygiene routines, the costs coming to and from the hospital, and the costs in taking time off of work to heal between procedures (after my implant/prefabricated dental post and crown, root canals, etc).

For the dental aspect alone, I have been given a quote today (August 12, 2020) of roughly $3100 and this covers the potential dental implant and extraction/prefabricated dental post crown procedure, and I believe one of three root canals I need done, which estimate $415 each (one root canal was completed a paid for a year ago, and another one will be a partial root canal, so I have two full root canal treatments needing funds) which brings the cost to about $4000 barring any complications.

 I have a long road ahead of me and it hasn’t been easy to get even this far. You never think you’ll have to experience something like this until you’re in it and when you’re in it, you’re in it. I have no choice but to move forward, which can seem absolutely, unbearably difficult some days. It took me months to settle into the idea that I was hit by a car, that my first summer in Montreal was completely changed by this one moment during what was previously a fantastic evening. You never think you’ll need help, financial help, for something like this until you do.


I ask of you today to give what you can, whether that be $5 or $25. Perhaps all you can afford right now is kind words of encouragement and that’s okay, and incredibly appreciated. I understand that not everybody is in a position to give by means of financial gifts, and if this is where you are currently at in life then I ask of you to share this fundraiser. 


I have an indescribable amount of love, respect, and gratitude for the people who helped me recover, brought me soft foods of all sorts to eat for the weeks following, sent me kind words and spent time with me following the accident. You don’t know how much it meant to me, how much it got me through those first few weeks and how greatly it ultimately impacted my life.

I can’t express enough how grateful I am to you, and I thank you for your friendship and your love. You know who you are. 



Your friend,

Charlene