A Waukegan, Illinois woman says she’s “embarrassed and depressed” after being promised a perfect smile by a Lifetime Network show — that left her nearly toothless.
Brooke Allen said before the show, dentists rarely agreed to work on her teeth due to insurance issues, so when she found a casting call online for a show entitled, “Smile,” looking for individuals who want the perfect smile, she jumped on the opportunity.
“Smile” was a Lifetime reality show that aired back in 2015, and Brooke participated in the Chicago and New York City filming.
The 35-year old mom and wife said that the show promised to remove her bad teeth and replace them with implants — but instead they removed a total of 20 teeth and left her with dentures, which she says are physically painful.
“The reveal was dentures. I was told that was for TV, and I would fly back and forth to Chicago to NYC until work was done…and it stopped and they said I had to heal for a year,” said Brooke.
She also added that she has been healing for 5 years now and still haven’t received an implant date.
Back in 2015, one of the show producers, Barbara Bonds (who is also a producer of Lifetime’s hit show “Married At First Sight”) had conversations through text messages with Brooke clearly stating that she will be receiving implants.
After two years of persistently asking questions, Brooke received an email from an executive producer saying “Smile” was no longer in production, and under the terms of their agreement they weren’t responsible for any medical treatment. Brooke said that nothing in the contract stated she had to pay anything out of pocket.
Five years after the taping of the show, Brooke is still waiting on her implants and wants an explanation of why the show producers fail to fulfill their promise.
She revealed that she wasn’t the only cast member who was affected by the reality show. She met a woman on Facebook that shared she was only given partial implants and dentures.
NYC dentists Dr. Debra Glassman and Dr. Steven Glassman, who worked on Brooke, said they initially had no idea about her complaint but they did acknowledge they had to discontinue service because the show abruptly stopped.
We reached out to Lifetime for comment, but so far no one has responded.
“I want to get on with my life,” she told CBS 2. “I want to be beautiful and be happy and have confidence, and now I’m stuck.”
A GoFundMe page has been set up for Brooke. Let’s help her reclaim her confidence to live a fulfilling life. Hopefully Lifetime and show producers will make this right and honor the promises they gave every cast member.
