Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Brittany Negler is only 29, but she's already been through a lot in her life.

When her 18-year-old brother died of cancer and her parents separated, Brittany spiraled badly.

In a TikTok video, she shared how deeply her brother's death affected her. Brittany blamed herself for the collapse of her family and her health quickly went downhill from there.

The Pennsylvanian fell in with the wrong crowd, suffered from severe depression, and ended up using drugs.

"I started hanging out with the bad kids, started doing drugs to numb the feeling," she recalled.

At her lowers, Brittany was "ready to call it quits and throw the towel in." Years of drug abuse had left their mark, badly damaging her teeth in particular.

With slow and steady work, as well as help from professionals, she eventually began the long road to recovery. After getting sober, it was time to get her teeth fixed. That's when things took another twist. Her dentist in Philadelphia told Brittany all her teeth had to be pulled and the dentures he made were ill-fitting.

The consequences were serious. When Brittany stepped into the office of Kenny Wilstead, who goes by Dr. Kenny the "tooth fairy" on Instagram, she weighed a shocking 79 pounds. The dentures made it impossible for her to eat and she was very unhappy with her appearance.

But the good doctor from Garland, Texas was about to change all that.

The first thing that Dr. Wilstead noticed is that Brittany's dentist in Philadelphia unnecessarily pulled all her teeth, when the problems were eminently fixable.

"They literally pulled all your teeth and did dentures because of some minor..." he said, the disbelief audible in the video posted to his Instagram page.

But then it was time to move beyond the past and into the future. Fixing Brittany's smile was never going to be easy – or cheap. The total cost would be around $30,000, but the young woman decided to take the plunge.

Judging from Brittany's reaction after Dr. Wilstead finished his work, it was all more than worth it. The big reveal was incredibly touching: one look in the mirror released an avalanche of emotions in the 29-year-old, who burst into tears and fell into the dentist's arms.

Brittany's story drew millions of views on her TikTok, with thousands of users praising her new look.

It's not clear if and how Brittany ultimately paid for the whole procedure herself, but she has since set up a GoFundMe page for a future non-profit organization that can help other people in similar situations.