By the time she was 12, Lilly was addicted to drugs and had been sexually abused by her grandfather. Her life was filled with issues that no child should ever have to face.
After years of struggle, Lilly landed at Birmingham’s Lovelady Center, where she found God and received help overcoming addiction. She also found resources for eliminating some of the barriers that held her back.
But one visible barrier remained: Drugs had done a number on her teeth. They were a broken and decaying mess.
“There were times I would cry myself to sleep because I would look in the mirror and hate what I saw,” Lilly said. “I was ugly in my eyes.”
Another Lovelady alumnus, Angel, was dealing with a similar problem. Her front teeth had been knocked out when the airbags deployed in a long-ago car accident.
Trapped in addiction, Angel had neither the money nor the motivation to replace her missing teeth. In the meantime, she was too self-conscious to reveal her gap-toothed smile.
“For more than 20 years, I didn’t smile at all,” she said.
As she prepared to graduate from the Lovelady program in early October and search for a job, Angel wondered how she could possibly make a good impression on prospective employers.
But now, thanks to Unforsaken Ministry, Lilly and Angel have beautiful smiles and the confidence to move forward.
Evolved
Founded in 2022, Unforsaken helps guide individuals in addiction and their families down the road to recovery. But as the ministry evolved, so did the needs that Glenn Sandifer, founder of Unforsaken, and his team encountered. And quite often, one of the pressing needs for people working to pull themselves out of the mire of addiction is dental services.
“Meth takes a terrible toll on teeth, and some of these people have been living that way for years,” Sandifer said. “You can recover from the drugs, but when you look in the mirror every day and can’t smile, there’s still some of that old life hanging on.”
Unforsaken’s dentistry ministry began when Sandifer helped a Lovelady client with broken front teeth regain her smile. But things really took off when he mentioned the growing dental aspect of his work to a pediatric dentist friend who said, “You know, I might have some friends who are interested in being a part of this.”
So Unforgiven hosted a meal for six dentists, and as a result, every one of them offered to become resources for residents of the Lovelady Center.
“It’s not free and it’s expensive,” said Sandifer. “It’s definitely taken a toll on our bank account, but the dentists are helping us out.”
Charles Hoskins, a dentist in Moody whose practice includes a denture lab, frequently uses his skills and resources to help patients get their smiles back. But to him, serving women like Lilly and Angel is especially gratifying.
“Whether it was addiction, abuse or a terrible unforeseen circumstance, I tell all these women that whatever they have gone through in their lives is immensely harder than any challenge I have experienced because I want them to be proud of how far they have come,” Hoskins said. “It’s an honor to feel that the work I am doing is having an impact on them.”
Conditions
To become part of the Unforsaken dental program, Lovelady clients must meet three conditions.
“They have to be at Phase 4 or 5 in the Lovelady program, they have to have clean drug screens and they can have no disciplinary issues for the past six months,” Sandifer said. “Most of the women in our dental program are within months of graduating, and we want them to be able to graduate with a smile.”
Lilly, he said, has been clean for about four years, but her ruined teeth continued to cast a shadow over her successes. So having her smile restored has been nothing short of life-changing.
“She was blown away with her new teeth,” Sandifer said. “She said she would wake up and think that getting her teeth was a dream, that she still had bad teeth, and it was all her fault. Part of overcoming addiction is learning to forgive yourself and love yourself. That’s a huge step in real recovery.”
Angel was amazed that within two weeks of her first appointment — and only two days before graduation — she had “the prettiest set of dentures you’ve ever seen. I can now look for a job without feeling self-conscious when I go for interviews,” she said.
As the dentistry ministry progresses, word is spreading about the help it provides.
“We also helped a guy down at a sober living facility in Bessemer who had some terrible teeth with cavities at the top of his gums,” Sandifer said. “In his case, it wasn’t just an issue of aesthetics; it was also pain, and pain is one reason we use drugs.”
In addition to dental work, Unforsaken helps with housing, along with everything needed for setting up housekeeping, and provides transportation to rehab facilities all over the state. Donations are tax deductible, and 84.55% of every penny given goes into direct ministry. For information, visit unforsakenministry.org.
“Since I have been a believer, I have seen God provide,” said Sandifer. “Whether it’s for my family, in the Church or with this ministry, God provides. And He’ll continue.”
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