Christian, 52, lives alone with his dog Midnight in Vermilion County and suffers from severe pain caused by ankylosing spondylitis—an inflammatory disease that causes some of the small bones in his spine to fuse together. Before his pain became too unbearable, he used to fish and do some woodworking.
Christian also suffers from rheumatoid arthritis and high blood pressure. In addition to his health challenges, he was missing many teeth and had gum disease making it difficult and painful to eat.
Christian’s poor heath forced him to stop working in factory production and now he relies primarily on his Social Security Disability benefit to make ends meet. Sadly, the dental treatment he needed seemed far beyond his reach.
How DDS Helped
Fortunately, Christian applied to the Donated Dental Services (DDS) program and was linked with three generous volunteers.
- Dr. J. Barry Howell provided an exam, X-rays, and donated a full upper denture and lower partial denture.
- Oral surgeon Dr. Theron Waisath extracted 15 of Christian’s teeth.
- Dental Arts Lab, Inc. fabricated the appliances for the full upper denture and the partial lower denture.
