Isaac Bryant: Boy Born Without Permanent Teeth And Bullied For His Appearance, But Insurance Refuses To Help

Isaac Bryant was born with a genetic condition that left him without most of his permanent teeth, an affliction that also makes the 12-year-old a target of bullies at school.

Now Bryant’s only chance to improve his situation, a surgery that would take bones from his ribs and graft them to his jaw, has been refused by his family’s insurance. The reason? The insurance company said it was a “cosmetic” surgery, and wouldn’t pay up.

Bryant’s family said it is far from a cosmetic program. The middle schooler suffers from a condition called ectodermal dysplasia, which affects his hair, teeth, nails, and sweat glands.

“It feels weird without teeth on the bottom because you can’t chew food normally,” Isaac told KSL.

Isaac said the condition made him stand out, and made it difficult for him to say certain words. As a result, he became a target for bullies.

Isaac has been resilient, but his family admits that he can get quite down at times.

“He got to the point where he was so frustrated with school that he would just toss his homework in the trash bin on his way out of class,” said his dad, Chris Bryant.

Family members say they can’t do much about it now, as their insurance company considers the quite costly surgery needed to fix the condition to be cosmetic.

Now Isaac Bryant’s family is trying to help. They have started a GoFundMe account to help pay for the surgery, sharing some of the struggles he faces and the adversity he has shown.

“Isaac has struggled to adapt to his ‘disablilty’ [sic] throughout most of his young life. He has been bullied all through elementary school, had to attend speech therapy, has a rough time eating, and fell super behind in school. He is now back at grade level, but he is entering Jr. High and we all know how rough that can be.

He has a wonderful orthodontist who did a bunch of work to get his upper teeth in position for dentures. However, the prothstetics are super expensive and will have to be rebuilt every year until he is 18.

Once he is 18 and stopped growing, Isaac will need bone graphs on his lower jaw and a full set of implants. The rough estimates are around $75,000 for the implants, and another 10 to 15k for the dentures until then. As you can imagine, insurance doesn’t cover hardly any of this.”

The effort appears to be catching on. The family has already raised close to $7,000 for Isaac Bryant to have his surgery, with the total increasing rapidly as the story gets national attention.

[Image via GoFundMe page]