Patient Spotlight

Veodis’s Story

“Everything just turned out to be swell.”

Extractions & dentures

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

Veodis never once went to the emergency room for his teeth. He just lived with them. “Ragged,” he calls them: unable to eat properly, holding back his smile so nobody would see.

Strangers didn’t make it easier. “People be talking, like, ‘you look all right till you smile.’” So he didn’t smile.

It wasn’t for lack of trying. He’d been to other clinics, and the answer was always the same: more than he could afford. “I’d be out of options, I’ll tell you the truth,” he says of life without Mint for More. “I’d just be having bad teeth.”

“I ain’t got to hide my smile. I feel a lot of confidence in myself, better than I did.”

After extractions and dentures through Mint for More, the holding back is over. He eats properly again (“I can chew my steak”) and the smile he spent years covering is the first thing you notice about him now.

Ask him about the team that cared for him and he’ll tell you, with a grin and an apology first: “They did a damn good job. Everybody’s very, very polite. I’m very proud of them. I’m grateful.”

What changed

Quiet enduranceNever went to the ER, just lived with it, for years. Now: answered.

Held back his smile“You look all right till you smile.” Now: nothing to hide.

Priced outOther clinics were always out of reach. Now: free, and done.

Steak againCouldn’t eat properly before. Now he chews whatever he likes.

Veodis giving two thumbs up after treatment at Mint for More

“Go for it. It’d be about the best thing that could happen to anybody who needs dental help.”

Veodis, to anyone thinking about donating

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

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