Reed, 60, qualified for Medi-Cal because of her ordeal. But in May, she was told she didn't have the necessary Medi-Cal coverage for the $7,000 worth of dental work she needed and had to try to live with her teeth as they were.

"They said I either needed to be 62 and disabled or have young children in the home, and I had neither," she said.

Later, Reed decided to make her voice heard. In September, she wrote a letter and sent it to many government officials, including Gov. Gray Davis. To her surprise, it worked, and now she's getting her teeth fixed -- for free.

Soon after sending the letter, Reed received a call from David Noel of Medi-Cal, who told her the governor had instructed him to do whatever he could to help her.

"Needless to say, I was in shock," she said.

Three days later, Reed was back in the dentist's office. She still didn't qualify for the state program, but Noel had spoken with the head of Western Dental Services, and the company agreed to take on all the costs for her treatment.

"She couldn't chew -- she couldn't eat," said Samuel Gruenbaum, Western Dental's CEO. "People don't realize how dental problems can deteriorate and affect the patient's fundamental well-being."

Reed has had six free appointments with Western Dental so far, and will go in for four more, finishing up her treatment before Christmas. She needed 22 teeth removed, dentures for her upper mouth, bridges, partial lower dentures, and other procedures.

In addition to not being able to chew, Reed said, she worried that, "when my doctor releases me to go back to work, how am I going to look?" Before contracting the bone infection, she worked for a temp agency.

Gruenbaum said that with state budget cuts, more patients might find themselves in Reed's situation. "What we fear is that there will be more reductions so that there will be many, many more cases like this one," he said.