Hello, everyone, Shawn here. I am a forty-five-year-old guy, and I’ve had a rough road when it comes to my dental situation. For 10 years, I was addicted to opioid prescription medications, and so I went and sought help at Oakwood Springs in Oklahoma City, a rehabilitation hospital. I lived there on-site for thirty days, and they introduced me to Suboxone. The medication was a hit. It saved my life, and I was able to recover, and I’ve been in recovery since November 11th, 2019. I have a full-time job now. I work. I have a place to live, and everything is going well.
The first 2 years of being on this new medication, I was having dental infections, and my teeth crumbled into nothing. I don’t have dental insurance, so I couldn’t afford to pay for all the dental work needed. Now, I only have 2 top teeth, and I have about three bottom teeth. All the teeth that crumbled, the roots are still there, and they remain. I can’t eat or smile. The dentists and orthodontists say that for me to just get dentures, they would have to perform complex extractions to get all the roots out and then reshape and reconstruct my mouth. It could cost up to twenty-five thousand dollars for me to be able to smile again and actually eat food. Everything I eat these days has to be processed in a food processor, including steak or pork chops or any type of meat. I certainly can’t remember the last time I actually smiled. And I work with the public now.
