Hi everyone,
I was born in May of 1956 in Modesto, Calif. My mother's doctor prescribed Tetracycline while she was pregnant with me for some infection. According to my mother, who as of Sept. 15, 2014, is 90 years old, she has been concerned all my life about my teeth staining, and has suffered from guilt all this time. While my baby teeth were fine and "white," my permanent teeth-especially the front teeth-came in as a greyish-green. I'm 58 yrs. old now. As a young toddler and boy, I was made fun of CONSTANTLY regarding my teeth. I did not "smile", then and I still do not show my teeth when I smile even today. In fact, as soon as I could grow a mustache I did specifically to cover my teeth when talking or smiling. I had a kid in 1969 say to me that he wanted to see my stained teeth, and when I opened my mouth, he smashed a fly on them and ran away! I was 13 and in 7th grade. Kids can be so cruel...
I did unspeakable things to my stained teeth when I was young before I realized there was NOTHING that anyone could do to lighten my teeth.
For instance: I brushed my teeth with "Ajax" and "Comet." I even used BLEACH on my teeth by applying it with a small paint brush on many occasions. Needless to say, I didn't tell my parents about these "cleaning" sessions.
And now, the most horrible thing I did to my stained teeth: I scraped the front one's with single-edged RAZOR BLADES to "scrape" the stain off!!!!!!!!!!! How's about that for a legal class-action law suit testimony on the stand????
Soooo, not only did I have horribly stained teeth through no fault of my own, I scraped a lot of the protective enamel from them, making them painful to cold, hot, anything acidic like: #1 Orange, grape fruit, lemon/lime juice and soda drinks [ alcohol drinks, ALL WINE, etc.] # 2 ANYTHING sour or with vinegar like pickles: #3 sour candies (Sweet tarts, etc.) absolutely put my teeth so on edge that I could not even brush my teeth for hours unless I suffered. To this day, I HAVE to have some kind of dairy food available to "coat my teeth" after a (sour) cocktail, or a simple glass of wine!!!!! I keep cottage cheese and cheese ALWAYS on hand to coat my teeth with afterwards. I have no other choice. If I don't have something like that on hand, I suffer to the point where even BREATHING THROUGH MY MOUTH KILLS ME!!!! I have to smear cheese on the front of my teeth to receive ANY RELIEF whatsoever. And now with my teeth being so susceptible to pain and discomfort, even the AIR hurts, if you can believe it. I do not exaggerate, my friends. Just ask my wife, mother family and close friends.
Needless to say, my teeth have been -and still are - a wreck: Painful suffering, embarrassment, psychological trauma, self-loathing, depression, identity-crisis, limits on job/employment advancement, social recluse, and so on.
I do not have the money to fix my teeth, but I feel that the pharmaceutical company should step up and compensate me for my true "PAIN AND SUFFERING." There have been other class-action suits for less pain and suffering debilitations.
Can anyone help me to start a suit?? Can someone with more legal contacts persuade a law firm to represent me-ALL OF US- who have been suffering all these years??? Surely, there must be some legal recourse for this un-just situation...
I'm sure that I am just the tip of the ice burg. PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!