Woman needed second job after crippling condition left her with huge dental bill
A woman has told how she was forced to take on a second job to pay for a massive dental bill after she lost a tooth during an epileptic seizure.
Confused and alone, Abbie Smith came around to find she was covered in blood and when she FaceTimed her mother to let her know what had happened, she discovered to her horror that her front tooth was missing.
So began a year-long nightmare that pushed Abbie’s health to the limit in a desperate bid to raise £4,000 to cover the cost of a dental implant. “One of the conversations we had at the time was, why won’t the NHS pay for this? If I had broken all my limbs they’d have fixed those happily, so why is it any different?” asks Abby, 25.
It’s a question the Epilepsy Society is raising too, as it calls on the NHS to provide free dental repairs for people with epilepsy whose teeth are damaged as a result of their seizures with their current Fix It 4 Free campaign.
Abbie pictured with her new toothData from the charity shows half of those who have suffered dental injuries during a seizure have not had them repaired because they can’t afford it, while 69% had been left with broken or chipped teeth, 61% have painful jaws and 31% are now missing teeth.
Woman who appears constantly 'drunk' says condition has 'destroyed' her life
Abbie had absence seizures – involving periods of blacking out – as a child, which progressed into tonic clonic seizures, with stiffening, twitching and jerking movements, when she was 11. Despite trying different medications, she has yet to find a drug that can stop her seizures completely.
When she lost her tooth, she was having one or two seizures every three or four weeks. “I don’t know when they’re coming on so I fall like a sack of potatoes,” she says. Abbie was working in sales for a helicopter company from her home in Yeovil, Somerset, when she went into her bedroom and “face planted” a chest of drawers. She searched high and low for the tooth, to no avail.
“By then it was too late to shove it back in because I’d obviously been by myself for a couple hours before I came round,” Abbie says. “After a seizure, it can take me a bit of a while to realise where I am and I was just trying to sort out the blood.” Abbie spent two weeks trying to register and get an appointment with an NHS dentist. When she finally got one, he was reluctant to get her in the chair in case she had another seizure.
“The dentist ran through what the options were, but I wanted something permanent that I could just put in. I didn’t want 60 years of having to put my dentures next to me,” Abbie recalls. “I then had to wait another couple of weeks so I could see an implantologist as they only came to that dentist once a month.
“It was pretty horrible because, being 23 at the time, I still went out with my friends and you feel like a bit of a numpty with no front tooth. I lost my confidence not knowing whether anything could be done.” When she did finally get to see the implantologist, he delivered the devastating news that a single tooth implant would cost £4,000 – money that Abbie simply did not have.
“My heart broke,” she says. “My mum was in there trying to see if we could get anything cheaper. But they said absolutely not, there was no negotiating. It was going to cost £4,000 and I don’t have that sitting in a bank. I had been to university so I had only been working for two years.”
Abbie felt she had no choice but to take on a second job in a bid to raise the funds. For nine gruelling months, she worked seven days a week, often starting Asda shifts at 3am before heading home for her day job. “I was finishing my nine to five job, having some tea and then going back to sleep. I didn’t have a life,” says Abbie.
“Not having my own time put me in a bad mood which then obviously affected my family because they’re getting hacked off because I’m just shouting at everyone. I was just so tired, but I didn’t really have any other option.” The stress and lack of sleep resulted in Abbie having more seizures, putting her at risk of further injury.
“I’d often hit my face and come out with bruises,” she says. “When you’ve got no tooth and a black eye as well, it just knocks your confidence so much.” Abbie finally saved enough money and quit her supermarket job. She then faced another couple of months waiting to see the implantologist to have her new tooth fitted, meaning the whole experience lasted a year.
“I never thought I’d be so grateful for a tooth. It’s a million times better. I can’t even describe it. I look in the mirror now and it’s just so, so good,” she says. “It was so expensive, but it was worth it. Looking back, I can’t quite believe I managed to do it.” Abbie’s seizures have now reduced to one every six weeks.
Grateful family of boy with epilepsy meet mum who helped get him vital treatment
“I think the Epilepsy Society’s Fix It 4 Free campaign is really important. It’s wrong that people have to pay for injuries caused as part of their epilepsy. People just think you have a seizure on the floor and then there’s never any consequences – that’s really not the case.”
You can find out more information and how you can support the Epilepsy Society's campaign for free dental repairs for people who need it after a seizure here.
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