The Teeth Project was born out of my own personal experience. Through years of drug use, living in remote parts of the world, altercations and periods of incarceration – I lost almost all my teeth. For a while I managed to get by with temporary plastic bridges hanging on to the few remaining rotten stumps.
Now living a life that brought me into daily contact with doctors, lawyers and other professionals – my tenuous teeth situation exacerbated my feelings of inadequacy. I had little education; no qualifications and my CV had twenty years of unexplainable gaps. I was now running a national organisation - Release - that demanded public
appearances and my teeth were running out.
I was lucky – with much support - I commenced a complete dental reconstruction in 2005 - bone grafts, 17 implants and a strong set of gleaming new teeth.
It is fair to say that this procedure completely changed my life.
During this process it became clear to me that there were thousands like me who with some help in getting new teeth
could have the same life changing experience.
It was from this realisation that the idea for the Teeth Project was born.