I grew up middle class but both my parents grew up in poverty. I never remember them telling us to brush our teeth or floss...so I never did. I lived in poverty for most of my adult life due to having children very young and low wage jobs. Everyone in my family has horrible teeth.

Going to the dentist was torture. I always had cavities and was chastised the entire time I was there so a trip to the dentist was something that I dreaded.

I had my first tooth-my right front teeth- pulled at 19 because they had broken off. I had insurance but I couldn’t afford to pay for a bridge out of pocket so I wore a flipper. For the next 24 years.

The flipper often broke because I refused to take it out to eat as I was so embarrassed to have missing teeth. I used super glue to put it back together. It got to the point where I couldn’t eat certain foods for decades because of the inability to bite or chew with my front teeth.

I lived in constant shame and had severe social anxiety because of the state of my teeth. I was a smoker, drank a lot of Coke and Pepsi, ate a lot of sugar and never flossed. I did start brushing once a day. Brushing was painful and always resulted in my gums bleeding.

Over that time, I had seven root canals, seven crowns, two more teeth pulled (my two left front teeth) so a new flipper made (this one a bit more hardy), countless cavities, at least 5 abscesses, rotten wisdom teeth that became abscessed but I was too afraid to go to the dentist for years so I dealt with pain so horrible that it shot down my neck and down my arms. For years. I went through a tube of orajel every week or so.

Whenever I couldn’t ignore the pain and would go to a dentist, they would humiliate me. I did go to one dentist for about a year for some work (root canals, etc) to try to get ahead of it. But then something happened (a job loss, a bankruptcy, other expenses) and I had to stop going.

Now in my forties and doing much better financially, I made the decision last year to finally fix my teeth. Seven implants, a bridge, a failed sinus lift, bone grafts for my front teeth due to not having enough bone left from the teeth being pulled so long crowns on all of my remaining teeth.

$37,000 later I can smile and not be embarrassed. I finally can live without the shame. It’s changing my outlook on life. Best money I ever spent but insane how little my insurance actually covered. I want to say something like $8,000 was covered by then- the extractions and crowns for the missing teeth. Outside of that it was all considered cosmetic.