some dental schools offer people the ability to come in and get worked on by students. you can look into that if you really that ashamed. I have had low self esteem since I was little so I can honestly tell you the best advice I was ever given was only use mirrors to wash your face.........the less you look the less self conscious you will feel. I know that sounds like an insult to some people oh your hideous dont look in the mirror, but really it isnt its a little fact the more you look the worse you feel.

We all suffer from insecurities but it sounds as if yours is paralyzing you from fully enjoying your life... You are selling yourself short and yet I have struggled with low self-esteem as well. I went to a therapist and she told me to everyday write down something I liked about myself (gradually it went up to 5 things, 10 things, etc). I was so used to thinking the negative about myself that taking a few moments out of the day to view myself in a positive light really helped me change my way of thinking. If you can go speak with someone (as cliche as that might sound) it may help you to feel better about yourself... If not, try the exercise I was given. I'll admit when I am going through a rough time I always revert back to it and within a few days I am feeling better. Hang in there girl... You're beautiful, smart, and worth so much more than you're giving yourself credit for!

i have bad teeth too. and sometimes i wonder if thats all people stare at when i smile. but i have had so many people tell me that they dont even notice it. but regardless, i am over what it feels like what i feel now is your flaws are what make you beautiful. i just had this conversation with a man i was dating. we are no longer dating, mainly by his choice. hes going thru a rough time, blah blah. but doesnt love himself. and it shows. find that inner chi to love even the most embarrassing thing about you... and little things like what you look like on the outside wont matter anymore.

My opinion is (and this may be heard) is to stop paying attention to what others think of you and to start paying attention to yourself. I think your first step is getting a job and go back to school. Without an education you are not going be able achieve much. Work as a waitress in a restaurant or in retail. Some of these places should be able to offer some sort of insurance and you can start fixing your teeth (i know this can be long and an expansive process with or without insurance, so take your time and pay for it slowly) and pay it off without getting in debt :) )
Please try to be strong! Don't cry - Smile! Remember you are great everything will be fine. Just take it slowly ... :)

I have the same problem. I started losing all my teeth in high school. Then when I got pregnant, it got much worse (cause a baby sucks all the calcium from your body). I come from a background of weak teeth throughout the family and we were not shown proper dental care growning up. Now I'm 27 and instead of waiting around for the rest of them to fall out or break (I have 10 broken teeth just on the top alone) I'm doing something about it.

Like you I have not had dental in a long time, because its super expensive. But there are health care programs out there that can help you. I'm on my state ACCSESS to cover my health and my babies, and they do cover dental work such as pulling, but nothing cosmetic, like fixing. So I've done some research. I can have all my broken teeth pulled for free, being in pain sucks more then not having the teeth at all! And I was told of a dental office that takes payment plans, no matter what your credit looks like. So I'll go to them to have myself fit for dentures. Over all it will cost me between $500-$1000 for the enjoyment of eating again. And being able to smile at ppl again will be so worth it.

Don't let this go as long as I have. You're still young enough yet. Letting your teeth go can cause serious health risks. Such as blood poisioning if they are infected. And lossing the ability to chew your foods can be harmful too. I've been on the harmful side of 95 lbs because it hurts too much to chew anything, so I rarely eat anymore since high school. Look up your state health care and see if your able to get on it.

And as for a job, you really have to just deal with the fact that you have bad teeth for the time being. Try finding a place to work with minimal interaction, like a call center. You talk to ppl over the phone, they don't see you. Just don't lose hope! There is help out there if you really want it!

i had a girlfriend whos teeth were quite litteraly rotting and made her breathe smell horrible and made her very sick. I suggest fake teeth and i know it stinks since you are only 19 years old but it will help your health and make you feel better when you look in the mirror (avoiding mirrors will not help at all, it only masks the problem.) having bad teeth can make you ill and even kill you if it gets bad enough (infections are nasty buggers) There are special places you can go to get affordable teeth or if you have insurance you can under go oral surgery and have perment teeth put in. I promise you will feel much better either way but until that happens you need to understand kicking yourself in the butt for not taking better care of your mouth will do you no good, only make you feel worse. things happen you need to learn to accept it and figure out a way to fix it. BTW my friend with the bad teeth was only 20.

I got dentures as well because of bad teeth. I am so much more confident and smile now.

I have anxiety problems as well. The best advice I can give you to deal with social anxiety is to pick a person that you feel safe doing things with and go do things with them. If you're afraid to go into a store by yourself, bring them along and check it out...go back a few times until you know the store and then maybe spend 5 minutes away from them in a store (obviously the bigger the store the better but you start off small) then you increase the time. Then you maybe have them take you to the store and you go in alone, stay in there for as long as you can handle and go back to the car, slowly working up how long you're in the store until you're going in and getting your own needs and then taking yourself.
If you have a place in your city that does therapy services on a sliding fee scale (they work with insurance and the rest they base what to charge you on your income and if you make nothing you pay nothing) can get you a case worker and their job is to help you learn how to be in society...teaching you the services the city has to offer and getting you a job, helping you finish school, finding a place you like to hang out, local events to go to that are in your interests, meeting new people and so on. They're great resources to use!!! They can even help you find places to get your teeth looked at.
I went to a technical school for my AAS and we had a dental program there that did exams, cleanings, x-rays etc for dirt cheap/free and they could help you find a dentist to get the work done. A lot of bigger cities have certain free dental clinics a few days a week. I personally am missing two teeth (both are molars tho) so I get some of that...I hate my teeth a lot and I don't show them. My boyfriend doesn't notice them when I smile, he told me tonight he loves my smile b/c it means I'm happy he doesn't think "teeth" when he sees it.

Depression is a pain and you find ways to cope/manage it and if you can't function b/c of it then you should look into professional treatment for it. Medications do help a lot of people and there are programs from drug companies all over now that offer free meds to those without insurance and a lot of the majour SSRIs (anti depressants) are on those plans (I've had to look into them for a lot of meds over the years). Other places can give you them for a few dollars a month.

Dental schools...They do the work for free or dirt cheap its students but they are supervised by dentists!!!

I completely understand where you're coming from - I didn't manage to pick up any good dental habits, either, not until I was a teenager, really, and now it seems like it was too late. I still take care of them now, but there's so much damage that needs to be reversed with actual dental work that I can't afford.

In the meantime, I'm overwhelmed by social anxiety. I need a job right now, but I'm so paranoid that I'll get rejected just because of my teeth (I don't know if that's probable, but it's how I feel) and I have no confidence when meeting new people. I'm hypersensitive to the teeth of others, and every time I see a perfect smile I want to cry.

My plan right now is to go to a new dentist with what little dental insurance we have, and find out my options. I know that someone I know actually got permanent dentures, which is still probably going to be pricey, but might be something I can pay off slowly over time.

I don't know what the best course of action for you is. But you're not alone - and we just need to start believing that we are more than our teeth.

You should look into getting your teeth fixed, my mom never took care of her teeth and they are falling outta her head. But, my mom doesn't care what peopel think. But you can ask for a loan to get your teeth fixed, or even asked mom and dad for help. hope this helps

I too have struggled with self-esteem problems all my life. I am now 45 and thought I was over it until a man entered my life who picked me apart. I then started to see myself in a new light. Not because of what he said but because of who I am. I am worth so much more than someone's opinion of me! I have to love me because if I don't who else will?!

I too have seen therapists all my adult life and they give some pretty good advice. Writing things you like about yourself is good. Say positive affirmations to yourself is good (ie. I have beautiful eyes). I think looking in a mirror is good because it can make us change for the better. Weight has been my struggle and looking in the mirror after I have went down 3 sizes has been encouraging AND shows me that I don't want to return to that bigger size.

Lastly, I think a weekly dose of worship at your church is the best medicine one can get!

Your post made me cry, b/c I too was in your shoes....from the time I was 17, till I was around 22, I couldn't even chew gum b/c my teeth would break! My parents couldn't afford to take me to a dentist when I was a kid, therefore I went once when I was 9, and that was it. I have bad genes, and to kick start it all, my parents did not enforce me to brush when I was a kid. I was so ashamed of the way I looked, I mean, I had a black tooth right up in the front, b/c it was pretty much dead!
I ended up going to the dentist on an emergency, b/c two of my molars had abscessed! The dentist pulled the two teeth, the referred me to the local free clinic, which was $5 a pop. He them proceeded to charge me $240 for the 2 teeth that he had pulled! I took me a year to pay him off! But I did go to the free clinic...They frightened me at that place, b/c the talked about how crappy my teeth were like I was some kind of junkie! Said they were gonna pull all my teeth out and make me wear dentures! One day though, they had a volunteer dentist helping a student, and when he saw how young I was, and how in need I was, he decided to take me under his wing, and work on me exclusively! You see, I needed root canals, and they don't perform those at a free clinic!
I started to go see him in is own office, and over time, he has done an outrageous amount of work on me! And all for free! ( its a long story but he even gave me a horse!) He has given me to date, 4 free root canals, probably at least 17 drills and fills, and my front teeth are all partial veneers! He still has me come in every 6 months for a cleaning and a check-up! and doesn't expect me to pay a dime, tells me to spend it on the horse he gave me!
Please don't give up hope of finding a way to get yourself fixed up! look into dentistry schools that do work on the public! I hope you find a happy ending like mine, b/c it sounds like you really deserve one!

I have bad teeth too...don't feel bad. Lots of people do...some are just better at hiding it. Watch how people laugh and smile. Not to put them down, but to see that you aren't alone.

No one is perfect. We all have an issue.

I also agree with the bit about focusing on God...He created you and He doesn't make mistakes or junk...just plan on how you can fix them or maintain them going forward. :~) Best wishes.

So I went to the dentist last week for the first time in my 'adult' life. I'm 19. We had dental insurance through the army while I was a child, but my parents are divorced. My mother, who I lived with, never took us to the dentist. I went in because My wisdom teeth were coming in an killing me. So I'm sitting in the chair after they did the x-ray. He said, yea my wisdom teeth were coming in and my jaw wasn't big enough so they would have to cut them out. No big, it happens to most people. Then he started looking in my mouth and apparently I have a ton of cavities. They went to update my dental records and he had to change them all to adult teeth. ((Last time I had been in I still had all of my baby teeth)) Mother never made us brush our teeth and what kid wants to brush their teeth?

I'm sitting in the chair about to cry thinking about so many things. What is my husband going to think? Why didn't I take care of my teeth? What am I going to do? WHY oh why didn't mother take me to the dentist? Anyhow after my little nervous breakdown he said it was all going to be cool and that it could be fixed. It would take a couple of times going in but it would happen. Since I've been a teenager I've always taken care of my teeth and he said that it had helped. My husband said he didn't care and that we would get it fixed. It wouldn't be a problem.

I'm still scary nervous about getting it all done because while it's happening my face is going to be way swole up all the time. We have insurance, through the Army but it has a cap on it (( I don't know how much)) so my husband said that he would help pay for anything the insurance doesn't cover because I'm going to school and don't have an income.

Try a dental school, they do things for either way cheap or for free. If you are worried about what people are going to think about you just don't go to a clinic in your area. Then say to yourself : I'm never going to see these people again, why do I care what they think. I'm just here to get some work done and I'll be on my way. :: Then you will have gotten your stuff done and you won't have to worry about what they thought about you, because you never have to see them when you are done and when you are done you will look a lot better.

Woah this was long. Sorry, but I do hope it helps.

Ask your parents for money to borrow so that you can pay it back later when you have a job. Don't worry about how you look, everyone has problems. When I look I the mirror I think about all the bad things about how I look, but if you pick out all the good aspects, you'll see that it overpowers all of the bad things. People respect you for who you are, not what you look like.

okay, so the whole not looking in mirrors thing is crap! you should feel beautiful no matter what! everyone has something to to feel good about. I am overweight, and i have weird teeth (like jewels-the singers) my nickname in school was sabers ( short for saber tooth tiger) lol. I laugh now, but i am still slightly ashamed, i often throw my hand to my face when i laugh or smile big, all my pics have this awkward smile or not smiling at all cause i think they are gross, but more an more through life people always tell me they aren't that bad, maybe they are just being nice, but I have learned to accentuate those attributes that are nicer, such as my eyes, or my hair, and just be myself, it makes people forget about your teeth when your personality is shining so brightly! anyways, this might sound funny, but i also suffered from a horrible depression for years, my ex would always call me fat and eventually cheated and left me, leaving me in the serious dumps, my therapist, suggested walking around naked in my own home to get more comfortable with my body, and to do my hair and makeup naked in the mirror, I found that after a while i was dancing around my house naked LMAO, facing my fears head on, and becoming comfortable with myself has helped my self consiousness, even tho its not gone, its way better, and i find that in relationships it makes a huge difference to, if you feel ugly, people are going to see you as ugly, it can be as easy as how you carry yourself, so keep that chin up high!!!

Some Dentist allow payment options. I'm without any insurance/coverage of any kind, and have to pay a total of over $5000 for braces and other work. Obviously I can't afford to fork over that much at once so my dentist and i worked out a payment plan, kind of like a phone bill or car payment. First step, get some counsiling. Anxiety is a much more common issue than people give it credit for. Drs will tell you again and again "talk about it." It's scary at first, but keep at it and it will get better. Talking about it helps you to recover, because you're facing what's scaring you and debilitating you. Next, get a job. Then approach your dentist. There are also so very many grants and benefits offered. Speak with someone from your hospital or look around online, apply for the Adult Health Benefit. It doesn't cover everything, but it takes the bite out of the costs.

You cant let it stop u let it impower you...now that u are over 18 the rules may be different for u since u dont have a job, depending on ur state, u may be able to get medicaid now u should go down and atleast apply...trust me its worth it! Get ur teeth worked on and then u can get a job. Also u can study for ur GED, there are classes u can take. A GED is considered equal to a high school diploma. I know its hard but u have to decide if ur going to move on or let ur problems run ur life forever...

Being in the same boat you are Hon I can give you this advice. Contact the nearest Dental College and ask them how soon you could get in to see one of their students. However this can still be costly. I live near Meharry Medical College in Tennessee. They have a clinic for people who don't have a lot of money to spend for dental care. However they can only slash prices so far and some major procedures that cost a lot of money may still be quite expensive. Ask the clinic when you call if they have a listing of Dental Clinics that base their rates on a sliding scale. Sometimes you can find charities where volunteer dentists open clinics on weekends to help those of us who aren't privileged enough to afford dental care. However, as you were growing up it was YOUR parents responsibility to take you to the dentist regularly for cleanings as well as make sure you maintained proper dental hygiene. If they did not do so then you should not accept the entire blame. Yes once you got to a certain age you should have known better and taken care of your teeth but your parents NEGLECTED to properly care for you. Bad teeth can lead to SERIOUS health issues they should have made sure to prevent those issues from coming up by taking you to the dentist. I deal with the health issues from my bad teeth everyday. The poisons entering my body from my bad teeth are weakening my heart, causing me to lose too much weight and keeping me sick all the time because of the lowered immunity caused by poor dental health. My teeth break off very easily and I have a sensitivity to anything Hot, Cold, or Sugary. I am counting down the days until I get in for my appointment to see the dentist. Unfortunately mine are so bad I will need to have them pulled and dentures are going to cost me around $1500. Keep in mind that I am ONLY 26 years old. Get your teeth fixed NOW before you face the problems I have to deal with on a daily basis. Then finish out you high school education. Either by getting your GED or finding an Adult High School in your area. Promise yourself that from this point on you won't let anything stand in the way of your happiness and success in life. Then live everyday doing your best to keep that promise to yourself.

Hey; I dont really know about how to get your teeth fixed but I do know this; If you let your teeth get in the way of youre life your going to regret it! I always hated my teeth! I would never smile or laugh or do anything involving my teeth, BUt after a while I relised that with out smiling life just isnt as fun. I dont know what your teeth look like but I'll tell you this, nobodys gunna bug you if you have bad teeth just smile! People wont notice your teeth they will notice you smile~! Thats what happend for me. And even if you do get bugged, whatever it dosnt matter what other people say you should just smile and go back to school before its to late. Just set goals for your self! To raise your self esteem (i know this is cheasy but it works) Make a list of all the thing you like about your self and read it over and over it will make you feel better and relise what you like about yourself! You cant go back in time so dont regret what you did or didnt do when you were young ! You just gotta be your self! You, and ever girl who has low self esteem, needs to relize that we are all different and unique and beautiful ! One last thing, SMILE!!~ Good luck :)

Wow, this one hits a little to close to home for comfort. When I was a kid, the dentist my mom took me too was horrific. (Which she didn't realize until too late. She thought I was just being a whiner) He never pulled my baby teeth, saying they would come out on their own. Sure they did, right after the adult teeth had grown in behind them! Even though my mom nagged me about taking care of my teeth, I was already looking forward to dentures by the age of 12. How sad is that? I was already so ashamed of my teeth that I stopped taking care of them altogether. So by 19, when I realized how important they actually are, it was too late. I brushed them on and off for a few years, but then it got so incredibly painful to brush, I stopped completely by the age of 22. My teeth are atrocious! And my husband and I don't have the money to get them fixed. When I got pregnant, that did it in for me. When I smile, I do it with my lips closed, instinctively, because all those years as a child being ashamed of my teeth, I had trained myself to do that so people wouldn't see them.

I have gained SO much weight because I'm unable to eat properly. I can't eat apples, oranges, carrots, corn, rice, popcorn, tuna, salmon (well, any fish really) and that's just because of my teeth, and only a small list. Not to mention that because of what the first jack@@@ did to my teeth, I didn't have a bite. Literally, my front teeth don't touch. I can stick about a quarter of an inch of my tongue through them. So I can't really bite through things. I have about 6 teeth that touch in my entire mouth. That doesn't make for very good chewing. And as I understand it, proper chewing is part of a healthy digestion.

What makes me the most sad about all of this, is not how it affects me. It's how it affects my son. Because I've never had a habit of brushing, it's hard for me to remember to brush my son's teeth. I don't want him to go through the same things his father and I did (his father had dentures by the time he was 22 because of bad teeth).

I wish there would be more public health notices about teeth, perhaps we can all stop the cycle and have a better future for our children's mouths.

Ok, i know pretty much exactly how you are feeling. I'm 14, i'm overweight, I'm home-schooled, and i have no clue if i will ever get a boyfriend or if i will be a success in my future life.
But you have to focus on the good things. You have friends (and don't tell me you don't because everyone has friends), you have a boyfriend, etc
Me, i'm a Christian. I have a bunch of awesome friends, I have the great and Almighty God, I am going to Heaven when I die, I have a great family and whether i get a boyfriend or not is irrelevant at this point. I have a whole life ahead of me. You are in your prime! Just have safe, healthy fun with your friends, and your life.
btw, have you been to the dentist? he can fix your teeth. braces, plates whatever! i had them and i am soo glad i did. If you need to get fillings, so what? So you will die with a few dollars less.

I've been where you are, only ten years ago. The dentist I saw at the time was the worst dentist I had ever been to. I was out on my own for the first time (19 years old and living on my own) and my parents were convinced dentists were a waste of time and money, so I'd never been to one before. My visit was painful and embarrassing, and the dentist treated me as if I were stupid (I was and always have been an honors student). I learned from my mistake - I had gone to the first dentist I saw in the phone book because the pain in one of my teeth was making it impossible to eat.

This past summer, I was confronted again with unbearable pain, and it was in multiple teeth. I'd had a dentist in between the first one and my current one, and she was wonderful, and my dental work never hurt when she did it. However, my husband and I filed for bankruptcy five years ago, and she was one of the people we owed money to when we filed, so she lost about $1500 on us, and understandably, no longer wanted us as clients. I had to find a new dentist.

I took my time, did my research, and found a dentist who seemed to fit the needs I had - considerate of my situation, compassionate, and dedicated to keeping patients comfortable. The only qualm I had was that I was afraid the work was going to be expensive...even his OFFICE looks expensive. It's very plush, very modern, and very comfortable. The work ended up BEING expensive. I had to have three wisdom teeth pulled (I never had a fourth one), one of which was impacted. Those were the primary teeth causing my pain. I also had 17 cavities, and three of those were also causing pain - one was nearly to the nerve. On top of the wisdom teeth and the cavities, I also learned that I have the early stages of periodontal disease - that was what was making it painful to brush my teeth or to eat with my front teeth. Periodontal disease is serious, requires treatment for the rest of your life, and if left untreated can result not only in tooth loss but loss of bone in your jaw, which leads to other complications. My treatments were spaced out over a month and a half, with an appointment pretty much every week. The cost ended up being over $6000 - and even though I HAVE insurance through my husband's work, the insurance only paid $1000 of it.

Thankfully, the dentist I chose also understood this, and he knew before I did that the insurance would not pay for much of my care; dental insurance often doesn't, I discovered. He was able to help me get financing through Care Credit, and I pay them $144/month. He sat down with me in a preliminary meeting to go over my dental and medical history, to understand my concern about dentists and the bad experience I had, and to explain what they had for payment options since 99.999% of people cannot afford to pay their bill upfront. Then he did an initial exam visually and with x-rays to find out exactly what was wrong and how much work would need to be done - I paid $6 out of pocket for that visit, because even minimal insurance usually covers routine check-ups. (Mine is not great at all, which is why they didn't cover the routine check-up 100% >_> ) He drew up an accurate estimate of what my dental work would cost in total before he did ANY work - that way I could see exactly what he was going to be doing and what it cost. I am super-happy with my current dentist and am glad to recommend him to others who ask me for a dentist.

It is absolutely worth it to do the research and find out what your options are. If you don't have a job with any dental insurance at all, contact your state and local health and human services agencies to find out what you might qualify for. Ask them WHY they think you're still covered by your parents (usually it's because your parents are claiming you as a dependent on their state and federal taxes; once you start filing as an independent, this will be less of an obstacle for you). Also, as other posters mentioned, look into local area dental schools, community colleges and other options that are available for low-income persons. (This is not widely known, but many community and technical colleges not only offer low-cost dental work if they have a Dental program, but also offer low-cost hair cutting and styling if they have a Barber/Cosmetology program. Some with Auto Maintenance programs offer low-cost auto repair and maintenance. They can do this because it is students who are doing the work; however, the students are under the supervision of a teacher or administrator, and they are usually in their practicum or final stages of their education and need the practice to help refine their skills. Ask around to find out what's available.)

There are ALWAYS options for help and to keep you moving forward in life. Don't let yourself feel dragged down because of your appearance or fears - once you overcome this stumbling block, you'll find more and more doors open to you.

I HAVE BEEN WORKING AS A CERTIFIED DENTAL ASSISTANT/ EXPANDED FUNCTIONAL DENTAL ASSISTANT FOR THE PAST 12 YEARS, OUR OFFICE WORKS WITH SEDATION PATIENTS ALL THE TIME THERE SHOULD BE NO EMBARSSMENT ABOUT YOUR TEETH, WE SEE ALL AGES WALK IN THE DOOR FROM THE 3 YEAR OLD CHILD WITH EVERY TOOTH IN THERE HEAD WITH DECAY TO THE 98 YEAR OLD LADY GETTING IMPLANTS, AND I DONT SEE NEGLECT OR BLAME A THING ON YOU... IT IS WHAT IT IS AND HOW CAN WE HELP YOU TO GET TO THE PLACE YOU WANT TO BE, OUR OFFICE HAS A BUNCH OF PAYMENT PLANS TO WORK WITH INCLUDING GOING TO THE CLINIC OR THE SCHOOLS, OUR JOB AS A DENTAL OFFICE IS TO HELP YOU, NOT MAKE FUN OF YOU, ITS PATIENT EDUCATION. PLEASE IF YOU GO TO ANY DENTIST AND FEEL UNCOMFORTABLE OR THEY ARE TREATING YOU BAD GET UP AND WALK OUT THE DOOR OR JUST TELL THEM IM NOT A IDOIT AND I DONT NEED TO TAKE THAT FROM YOU, I HEAR ALOT OF DENTIST THAT ARE THERE TO MAKE MONEY AND IT URKS ME DONT GO TO THE YELLOW PAGES EITHER WORD OF MOUTH IS THE BEST.DENTURES ARE PROBALLY THE BEST OPTION FOR YOU FOR NOW IT GIVES YOU A GREAT SMILE AND YOU CAN ALWAYS GET IMPLANTS DOWN THE LINE WHEN YOU ARE FINANCIALY STABLE, I SEE PEOPLE 50 YEARS OLD GOING THRU THIS AND WISH THEY WOULD OF DONE IT WHEN THEY WERE YOUR AGE..ONCE THIS IS TAKEN CARE OF EVERYTHING ELSE WILL FALL INTO PLACE YOU WILL SMILE AGAIN....