Help restore David’s smile after being assaulted

$8,048 of $54,500 goal

Given by 115 generous donors in 12 weeks

Talented professional musician and entertainer David Shanhun needs your help to restore his teeth and smile after being assaulted.

Auckland

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David was assaulted on the 16th of April 2016. He had 2 teeth knocked out completely, and 10 teeth moved around in his mouth. A total of 6 teeth are dead and will eventually need replacing. He’s a talented singer/songwriter and entertainer, and a generous, cheerful, vibrant young man. He now needs multiple root canals, dental implants, and has had braces put on to try to hold the rest of his teeth together.

The team caring for David have done an amazing job, but the cost of treatment is scary. The cost for 6 root canals, 2 implants and orthodontic work to bring back the smile and grin we know and love is estimated at $26,500. There is also another estimated $28,000+ of dental work that will be needed over time. The road to recovery will take some time and will reduce David’s ability to perform at various stages of treatment, and he will be faced with significant ongoing dental costs – not to mention the pain along the way. ACC will help with some costs but as yet we are unsure as to what that contribution will be.

David has touched the lives of many people through his music, and has offered his support to charitable trusts himself. One of David’s original song compositions (“I Believe in You”) is a great example of his personality and compassion towards others. Although he can’t perform at the moment, he plans to be back in action as soon as possible. He's an incredibly positive and inspirational person who deserves the best possible care and treatment.

Check out http://www.davidshanhun.com or http://www.YouTube.com/DavidShanhun

Fiona Shanhun's involvement (page creator)

David is the best brother anyone could wish for. His amazing positive, caring, loving and generous nature has touched the lives of many people, but none more so than his family. My parents and I just want to do everything we can to help David through this challenge. Your support means a lot to us all and will be a huge psychological boost for David as he looks forward beyond this incident.

Latest update

Health/Teeth/Face Update 24 May 2016

***Message from David:***

Thank you all so much for your support, love, contributions, messages and people dropping in to say hi - SO MUCH APPRECIATED.

I am doing well (I think) overall, and finally have a 2 week gap until my next appointment as they wait for my teeth to settle a bit more before doing anything further. I still can't eat anything that requires real chewing or that is hard, and can't use my top or bottom front teeth in the eating process, but am learning quickly which foods and meals work and I'm making it all work ok. I have lost a lot of weight and still am probably not eating enough overall but am supplementing what I eat with protein shakes and other goodies to make sure I'm as healthy as I can be :)

I don't have a huge amount of energy and still sleep quite a bit each day, but the good news is I can do some of my gigs and sing again - I just need to make sure I have a good sleep beforehand and then again after! In some ways it's kinda like being a kid again... having to have an afternoon nap if I plan on staying up late and taking a protein shake with me for mid gig when I run out of steam! I even had a really nice evening with friends over for dinner last night (after having an afternoon/evening nap first!)

I still have 3 stitches in my bottom lip which I hope will be out/gone soon. It's looking much much better especially the last four or five days or so when the main scab came off.

Thank you all so so much for your support and asking me how I'm going and just saying hi :)

I still have some emotional roller coaster moments, and some of these come at the strangest times, but overall things are improving and I feel like good progress is happening even if it appears very slow to me at times!

Thank you all again so so much

xoxoxox

David

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