Chris Byrne, 45, said his dental problems began when one of his wisdom teeth needed to be removed.

"The root had grown into the root beside it and it'd hooked around the next root and the roots had also extended straight down into my jaw," he said.

"When it came to wanting them out, it definitely wasn't going to happen in a dentist studio or in a chair, it had to be done under the knife in hospital."

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An abscess formed while Mr Byrne was on a waiting list to get the tooth removed. His normal dentist was on holidays and another practitioner did more damage when they tried to remove the tooth.

"I went through three months of absolutely agony, I'd push my knuckles into my head so hard that I'd run out of energy in my arms," Mr Byrne said.

"Instead of losing the wisdom tooth I ended up losing four.

"I struggled to ever walk back into a dentist, I'd let everything get as a bad as it could before I'd walk back in."

The teeth that were left in Mr Byrne's mouth eventually came out too.

"Initially I followed all their directions and let them save what they could save, but it just wasn't working," he explained.

"They'd put a filling in one and 18 months later that filling would drop out and everything underneath it or behind it, so yet again another two teeth would come out."

With just six teeth left, Mr Byrne said two years ago he begged his dentist to take the lot out.

"They were going to take five of them out and leave one in because there was nothing wrong with it.

"I just burst into tears and said 'just take it, I've gone through this for 20 years'."

Mr Byrne said his dental troubles damaged his ability to work, eat and socialise.

"I pretty much live off baby food, overcooked vegetables, pasta, anything that will turn into mush. I go against my better judgement sometimes and I really want to eat a biscuit and I'll do it and I'll end up with mouth full of blood.

"I've worked in hospitality all my life and usually front of house. I watched my career get chipped away at because I didn't look the part.

"Initially it wasn't visually obvious, where as now my face has started to sink, it's changed the way that I talk and I've sunk further and further into a depression and I don't like coming into contact with people and having them see my like this."

After he attempted to use dentures as a substitute for the extracted teeth, Mr Byrne said a dentist advised false teeth were not an option.

"I don't have enough curvature in the roof cave of my mouth which is something that helps create suction, I'm on medication which gives me a dry mouth and you need fluid in your mouth to create suction and I've also got an overactive gag reflex."

Implants were the last option for Mr Byrne, whose lives with bipolar and relies on the disability support pension.

"The cost of implants is astronomical," he said.

"The first estimate I was given was $50,000... mine isn't going to be quite that easy...it's possibly up around $70,000."

Mr Byrne said implants were not government funded and because he could not afford them, he took to the crowdfunding platform GoFundMe to get donations to pay for the dental work.

An SBS Insight program producer came across the GoFundMe page and invited Mr Byrne to appear in an episode about the state of oral health in Australia.

The Insight appearance enabled Mr Byrne to connect with Australian dental industry heavyweights who have started to help him get the implants.

"It's all being done pro-bono," Mr Byrne said.

"The company that makes the dental implants are offering them to me for free.. I've never cried in happiness but I bawled my eyed out when I found out."

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