Isaiah's Dental Work

Hello! We are the Richardsons, and we are asking for assistance to help offset the cost of our son Isaiah's dental work. As some of you may know, Isaiah has some major dental issues. Due to a few different factors, he has decay on a majority of his upper teeth. The main factor is the damage that was caused before we found out that he has serious gluten sensitivity. We are in the process of testing for Celiac. Before we went gluten-free, he was having bouts of refusing to eat, followed by constant vomiting, which lead to a ton of bacteria and stomach acid wreaking havoc on his mouth. We also recently found out that gluten sensitivity can cause a deficiency and erosion of tooth enamel because when someone with gluten sensitivity ingests gluten, it disrupts the body's ability to absorb essential vitamins and minerals. Several studies have shown that children who have Celiac have increased levels of bacteria in their saliva which leads to tooth decay and gum diseases. We have tried our best to stay ahead of his dental issues, but there is only so much we have been able to do, as once decay begins in teeth it is difficult to stop. We had a lot of issues trying to find dentists covered in our network, and have been jumping through hoops for the past year and a half figuring out what to do and where to go to get this work done. Now that we have found a dentist willing to work with us, we are raising money to finally fix it and to have our boy go into his first year of school feeling confident with a fresh smile.

The money we are raising will be going towards a full dental work-up, including several crowns, a couple of extractions, and the anesthesiologist fee. Since Isaiah is only 4, he has to be put under for the duration of his work. We are lucky to have been able to find a local dentist in our network that only specializes in pediatric dental cases of this nature, and he works with the anesthesiologist for a flat rate to do the work in his private office, which will save us money, and keep us from going into an OR at a hospital. Unfortunately, our insurance only covers so much of this procedure, which has been estimated to be around $3500 all together. Jarrod and I have been able to save $1000 to go toward this work, but we are asking for assistance to cover the remainder of the cost. Ideally, we would like to get this done by the end of the summer, August 2023, before Isaiah attends kindergarten in the fall.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read this. We are grateful for any and all help we can get! Much love.