37-year-old mother-of-three Jamie Henley is finally going to see a dentist – for the first time in 30 years. Ever since Henley was eight years old, dentists have refused to perform even the most ordinary of exams on her because they’re scared of her birthmark.
Henley’s face, neck, chest, and back are covered by a port wine stain, a symptom of capillary malformation in the skin. Dentists always feared that one wrong move in Henley’s mouth – that was so close to the stain – would burst a blood vessel and put her entire life at risk.
Because Henley has since not been able to find a dentist willing to perform any dental work on her, her gums have eroded and her mouth is now filled with chronic abscesses, that can be potentially fatal. She also hardly ever smiles because she’s now so self-conscious about her teeth.
“When I go in to their office, they take one look at me and turn me away. They don't know if they are going to make the wrong move,” Henley explained. “It's embarrassing, I don't like to smile a lot. I just want to have a pretty smile and my life could move on.”
The port wine stain in and of itself is already hard enough to bear. Henley is always telling herself to ignore the stares and whispers of people who pass her on the street. When children ask, she explains that “God colored [her] different…we were all marked different.”
On top of the psychological effects, Henley also has to live with the stinging pain of the stain and undergo three or four laser surgeries a week to keep the birthmark from affecting her even more.
In October 2016, however, Henley finally made a breakthrough.
A dentist in New York agreed to see her and perform all the years of dental work she’d missed. The procedure in total – for all her root canals, extractions, and implants – will cost $6,000.
Henley is now hoping to raise money online for this life-changing opportunity. Please donate here if you can.
