My name is Tia, and this is one of the hardest things I have ever asked for.

I want to smile again.

Not the closed-mouth smile I’ve perfected over the years. Not the smile where I instinctively put my hand over my mouth. I mean a real, teeth-showing, completely unselfconscious smile.

I haven’t willingly smiled in a photograph that showed my teeth since I was 14 years old.

That’s more than 30 years of hiding.

Growing up, I lived overseas and moved constantly. My dental care was never consistent. I would get to one place, have an appointment or a cleaning, and then we’d move again. I never had the opportunity to establish a long-term relationship with a dentist who could actually treat my teeth properly.

And then there were the braces.

The orthodontic work I had as a kid damaged my enamel, leaving my teeth weakened and vulnerable. Over the years, I’ve had filling after filling after filling. What started as attempts to repair individual problems became decades of patchwork dental work.

I’ve done everything I could to keep going.

But I’m at the point where I can’t patch this anymore.

I recently went to Aspen Dental hoping there might finally be a way to fix my teeth and get my life back. Instead, I was given an estimate of approximately $40,000 for the dental work I need.

My insurance will cover only about $1,500.

Even the deep cleaning I need is estimated at $2,600.

Forty thousand dollars might as well be a million dollars to me. It’s an amount I simply cannot come up with on my own.

And the truth is, I’m miserable.

My teeth are the one thing about myself I would change in a heartbeat. I’ve learned to live with almost everything else life has thrown at me, but this has followed me for decades. It affects how I smile, how I photograph, how I interact with people, and honestly, how I feel about myself.

I’ve spent so much of my life hiding my teeth that I don’t even know what it feels like anymore to simply smile without thinking about it.

I’m not asking for perfection.

I just want my smile back.

I want to be able to laugh without covering my mouth.

I want to take a photograph and actually smile.

I want to meet someone without immediately wondering whether they’re looking at my teeth.

I want to stop feeling ashamed of something that began when I was a child and has been compounded by decades of inadequate dental care and repairs.

The $40,000 goal will go toward the extensive dental treatment needed to restore my teeth, including the cleaning and restorative work required to get my mouth healthy and functioning properly. Any funds raised beyond what insurance covers will go directly toward this treatment.

I know $40,000 is an enormous amount to ask for. If you can donate, anything at all genuinely helps. If you can’t donate, sharing this fundraiser could mean just as much.

I’ve spent more than 30 years hiding my smile.

I’d really love the chance to finally show it.

Thank you for reading my story, for sharing it, and for helping me get one step closer to smiling without fear.

Thank you. ❤️