Patient Spotlight

Teresa’s Story

“I look like my old self — the person that made me smile.”

Full extractions & dentures

Teresa: before and after treatment at Mint for More — Before & after — Teresa, a real Mint for More patient. Photo used with permission.

For more than ten years, Teresa was judged by strangers for her teeth — people deciding who she was before she said a word. The story was never really about pain. It was about being seen wrong for a decade.

Disabled and on Medicaid, she ran out of doors. The places she tried were either full, not taking new patients, or carried months-long waits — and when one clinic couldn’t help, they handed her Mint for More’s number. “This is the only place that has really been able to help me,” she says.

“I just looked in the mirror and I looked like a different person — I look like my old self. The old person that made me smile.”

She timed her dentures on purpose: her son was graduating, and she hadn’t seen him in years. She wanted to be there — fully herself — in the pictures. When she looked in the mirror afterward, she didn’t see someone new. She saw who she’d always been.

What she keeps coming back to is how she was treated: not rushed, not herded — but welcomed. “Y’all made me feel like I was with family.”

What changed

A decade of judgmentSeen wrong for ten years. Now: she smiles back.

Every door closedFull waitlists and dead ends. Now: real care.

Her son’s graduationTimed her smile to be there — fully herself.

Treated like family“So professional — and so welcome.”

Teresa smiling after treatment at Mint for More

“This really changes people’s lives. Today is a big day for me.”

— Teresa, to the donors who make this care possible

Mint for More provides free dental care to neighbors who lack access to a dental home. Stories like Teresa’s are made possible by donors — and by the nonprofit partners who refer the neighbors we serve.

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