I’ve been dealing with dental pain for a long time. Long enough that dentist visits stopped feeling hopeful and started feeling like maintenance — clean this, patch that, wait for the next thing to break. It never felt like there was real room to talk about what living with that pain was actually like. What I learned the hard way is that there is a difference between just showing up to an appointment and knowing how to speak for yourself. When I didn’t have the words, I kept leaving feeling stuck and discouraged. Here’s a hard truth a lot of people don’t realize: dentists aren’t really gatekeepers to bigger options — they’re repair shops. Their focus is cleaning, fixing, and saving natural teeth whenever possible, and extractions are usually the last thing they want to do. That focus doesn’t always line up with the reality of someone living with constant pain. I’m sharing this because I know I’m not the only one who’s walked out of an appointment feeling unheard or worn down. If you’ve been there too, I’d really like to hear your experience.

I wish I would’ve known sooner that what I was saying in my kids’ IEP meetings was sometimes working against them. Anyone else have a “wow… I didn’t realize that” moment when it came to advocating for their kid?

Welcome to ReadyMe 👋 I’m Devon. I started ReadyMe based on my own experiences trying to figure out how to advocate for myself and my kids. Between health issues and navigating education for kids with disabilities, I spent a lot of time feeling confused and unsure of what I was supposed to do or say. Over time, I had to pick up enough of the language these systems use just to get through them. That’s really what this space is about. ReadyMe is a low-pressure place for everyday people to share experiences, feel less judged, and help each other make sense of things like banking and credit, healthcare and dental care, education, housing, and other systems most of us were never taught how to navigate. You don’t need the right words here. Lurking is fine. Asking basic questions is fine. We’re just people sharing what we’ve lived through and helping each other feel a little less lost.