An Illinois woman who went on a reality TV show to fix her rotting teeth ended up with her teeth being extracted but never replaced, leaving her toothless nearly a decade later.
Brooke Allen said she agreed to be filmed for a Lifetime show called Smile. She said she was interested in participating after seeing that contestants on the show could receive dental work in exchange for her being filmed.
Months later, she said the show’s producers arranged for her to have all her teeth pulled and replaced with implants, but the show was pulled from the network before they could finish the work. Since then, she hasn’t been able to replace her missing teeth so she has had to resort to live with a mouth with no teeth inside. It has been eight years.
This story was first reported on The Shade Room.
Lifetime producers say they are not required to complete her dental work per the terms of an agreement Allen signed when she first agreed to appear on the show. Since then, Allen has resorted to living a sheltered life – hiding her newfound look from her family and friends.
“What happened to me was totally [on] me,” Allen admitted to The Shade Room. “It wasn’t drugs or anything like that.”
She further stated that she has secluded herself from most of society, but still goes to work and church when she isn’t home with her husband and four children.
“Now it’s eight years later and I’m still having anxiety (over my mouth), I still can’t eat. I just have nothing. They left me hanging.”
Allen has created a GoFundMe to assist with dental expenses to her have smile back.
“I’ve been healing for the past eight years the dentist and lifetime network are blaming each other as to why the work still isn’t finish. This situation has ruined my life,” reads a statement from Allen on her GoFundMe page. “[This has given] me really bad anxiety when it comes to eating it took me another year to teach myself how to eat. I don’t really go in public as much. My confidence is down and I don’t really go and try to make friends.”
The statement continues: “I want the TV show to see what they did to me and be held liable.”
To help Allen restore her smile, please consider making a donation here.
