Help Bring Back Brian's Smile and Restore his Luxury Bones

Brian Irizarry is organizing this fundraiser.

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Hey friends. This is one of the hardest things for me to do so please be nice to me. The very short reason why I'm here is that I need some emergency dental work done. As you can imagine, it is not cheap. It's hit a critical point of affecting my physical health. If you know me, you know I'm one to ramble on and over explain things so here goes:

If you've ever seen me smile, you've seen the smile that I give. It kind of looks like this [insert grin emoji]. It's just a smile that goes down. Some people find it to be more of a frown. To put my situation simply, due to neglect and just not taking care of myself in general, most of my teeth are cracked and broken. This makes it hard to smile in pictures. I have never done any more than a grin in any picture I've ever taken in my children's lifetime. Anyone who knows me, knows I am a clown. Having to be able to figure out how to not open my mouth very wide while doing something that brings people so much joy has been a major struggle for me. Being able to clown around and spread some silliness in this world is the one thing I feel like I do well. I just need some help getting this clown's smile back.

I tried to get back on track with dentist visits back in 2018 but the doctor that I went to see took one look in my mouth, took his gloves off and left the room in disgust. As you can imagine, that is pretty discouraging. Getting to the dentist is nerve-wracking even for someone with a perfect smile! At that point though, my condition was mostly cosmetic. My cracked smile was starting to wear down my self-esteem and self-image but after that experience, it took me a long time to want to get back to taking care of myself, 7 years in fact.

The cost of all of the work that I need done is over $10,000 which is quite a large chunk of dollars. Insurance doesn't help take the sting off of that very much at all. I was so torn on starting a GFM for so many reasons. Asking for help is really hard for me. I'm only requesting help for $5,000 because this will help take care of some of the work that is turning into more of a medical emergency rather than just wanting to be able to not cover my mouth when I laugh.

Most importantly, it just hurts. Eating hurts. Drinking hurts. Just sitting hurts. Some of the headaches that I've gotten due to this have crippled me to the point of wanting to just keep myself in a quiet space and shut the lights off. This year I have taken so many HUGE strides to better my physical and mental health (THERAPY HELPS, KIDS!). I am proud of me. This is the last big step that I have to take much sooner than expected in order to continue down the path of feeling better about who I am and what I bring into this world.

If you've made it this far, just know that this took a lot just to share this tale and this whole kick of self-help that I've been on. I don't expect much, if anything, to come from this GFM but I just want to say thanks for listening to my tale. I hope at the very least someone who reads this can be inspired to go get themselves checked out for anything that is bothering them. All of this work will be taking place regardless because it has taken a turn from wanting to be pretty into needing to be able to eat a hotdog properly. Any contributions to make this an easier blow to deal with financially is much appreciated. okloveyoubye