Richard, 44, lives in Jacksonville with his roommate and he has joint custody of his two daughters. After working for years as a deputy sheriff and a correctional officer, he had to retire due to his poor health. He has type-1 diabetes that has caused numbness and pain in his legs and feet and suffers from gastroparesis which causes extreme nausea. Additionally he has a back injury and suffers from PTSD.
His dental condition had also deteriorated because his chronic nausea from his gastroparesis had taken a toll on his teeth. Richard was missing many teeth and those remaining were broken or decayed. He survives on a Social Security Disability benefit and food stamps and struggles to make ends meet. Sadly, the dental treatment he needed seemed far beyond his reach.
How DDS Helped
Fortunately, Richard was referred to the Donated Dental Services (DDS) program by his nurse case manager and was linked with three generous volunteers.
- Dr. Azi Yavari extracted one tooth, smoothed his jawbone, restored thirteen teeth, and donated a partial lower denture, and a partial upper denture with frames.
- Endodontist Dr. John Lundgren provided three root canals.
- DCS Dental Laboratory fabricated the eleven crowns, a partial lower denture, and a partial upper denture with frames at no cost.
