Reason to smile: Outpouring from readers will end his pain

Michael Coates is scheduled to lose eight of his teeth today. He can hardly wait.

"I just want my teeth pulled out so I can't feel pain anymore," Coates said.

Three days after a Seattle Times story that chronicled Coates' dental ordeal — and eight excruciating years after he first felt the throb in his molars — the Auburn man is about to find relief in the office of a Renton oral surgeon.

Coates, 34, was part of a story about the lack of dental care for poor and uninsured people. He had shown up at the Auburn Community Dental Clinic in agony from abscessed wisdom teeth. To numb his pain, he sipped ice water from a pitcher and carried a juice jug to spit out the tepid water.

Readers reacted swiftly to his plight. More than 50 people from as far away as Kentucky offered to help pay to fix his teeth. Two executives from Amgen in Seattle and SNC-Lavalin Constructors in Bothell each offered to personally cover the entire cost.

Many readers said they couldn't shake the image of Coates in a photo on the front page, crying because his blood pressure was too high for a dentist to give him anesthetic.

"I thought, 'I have to help him,' " said Sherrie Jolliffe, a Metro bus driver who hasn't forgotten her own pain from an infected tooth 34 years ago. "Oh, my God. No wonder he cried."

One of those who reached out to help was Peter Carpenter, chief executive of ClearPoint, a Seattle health-insurance brokerage. Carpenter asked a dentist friend, Dr. Scott Moffitt, of Burien, to examine Coates. Moffitt said Coates had "extensive" problems, including infections not just in all four wisdom teeth but the four adjacent molars.

Moffitt referred Coates to an oral surgeon, who asked that his name not be published. The surgeon was scheduled to extract the eight teeth this morning. Carpenter has pledged $1,000 toward the surgeon's fee, if needed. Coates also needs other repairs on fillings, and Moffitt has offered to do those later for free.

Coates, who delivers furniture part time, was appreciative and a bit dazed by the attention. He said he is trying to imagine what it will be like to live without the constant ache.

"I can't wait for Saturday and Sunday" after the teeth are gone, he said.

After years of scrounging for dental care with no insurance and little money, Coates knows that the need is vast and options few. He said to really get an idea, people should visit a community dental clinic at dawn on the days they treat poor people needing urgent care.

"You'll see a line of people holding their teeth and crying," he said. "I'm not a special situation."

Kyung Song: 206-464-2423 or ksong@seattletimes.com