NEWS
& notes
Give Kids A Smile Day to
Provide Free Dental Care
for Children in Arlington
Give Kids A Smile Dental Clinic
Underscores Critical Need
in Texas
Dental Health Arlington will be sponsoring their annual Give Kids A Smile®
event on Friday, February 5th at Dental
Health Arlington to provide an estimated
50 underserved children with free dental
services.
Nearly one in four children age two to 11
years old has untreated cavities in their
baby teeth, according to the U.S. Centers
for Disease Control and Prevention.
Give Kids A Smile is the centerpiece to
National Children's Dental Health Month
(NCDHM) and is recognized nationally
every year on the first Friday in February.
NCDHM focuses on providing oral health
education to all children while Give Kids
A Smile was designed to provide free
chair-side education, screening, treatment,
preventive and restorative care to children
in need.
Give Kids A Smile is held annually to:
• Provide free, easily accessible dental services to qualifying individuals.
have cost $120,000 just at DHA alone.
The American Dental Association (ADA)
launched the Give Kids A Smile program
nationally in 2003 as a way for dentists to
join with others in the community to provide dental services to underserved children. Each year, about 350,000 to 400,000
children benefit from more than 1,500
events, all because of the efforts of 40,000
or more annual volunteers nationwide.
The high volume of patients participating
in charitable events like Give Kids A Smile
highlights a clear gap between those
with and without good dental health.
Considering that oral health is connected
to total health, financial barriers to care
should be of major concern to the leaders
of our state.
This year’s Give Kids A Smile event will be held
at Dental Health Arlington Clinic on Friday,
February 5th from 8:30am-3:00pm.
In addition to helping underserved children, Give Kids A Smile’s intent is to
highlight for policymakers the ongoing
challenges that disadvantaged children and
children with disabilities face in accessing
dental care. The overarching message of
Give Kids A Smile is that even the high level
of charitable care delivered by dentists
• Raise awareness of the epidemic of
untreated dental disease occurring locally
and nationally and create local public and
private partnerships to increase access to
oral health care to solve this crisis.
Dental Health Arlington has been hosting
Give Kids A Smile events for 12 years in the
community as a way to provide free dental
care to local children who desperately need
it. These events have provided free care to
over 600 children that otherwise would
24 NORTH TEXAS DENTISTRY | www.northtexasdentistry.com
every year will never solve the problem of
untreated dental disease among the
nation's children. A major purpose of the
project is to influence government and society at large to work with dentistry to craft
common sense, market-based solutions to
access disparities.
“This day gives children who have no
means the opportunity to receive dental
care at no charge. This helps with selfesteem, overall health and wellness. The
services would not be possible without the
support of our local community and dental professionals.”
– Laura Lopez Stinson, RDH
DHA BOD Board Member
“Dental Health Arlington has been a part
of Give Kids A Smile for the last several
years. We are so fortunate to have so
many people in the dental profession willing to donate their time and talents to provide access to care for the underserved
children in our community.”
–Nancy Blinn, RDH
DHA Executive Director
For more information about Give Kids A Smile
events, visit: http://www.ada.org/en/home-ada/
public-programs/give-kids-a-smile.