Give Kids A Smile
Give Kids a Smile Day! is recognized during Children’s
Dental Health Month, a national event celebrated annually in February to teach
children about good dental health. Give Kids a Smile is a dental-care access
day aimed at enhancing the oral health of thousands of needy children. Activities
also highlight for policy-makers the ongoing challenges that low-income and
disabled children face in accessing dental care. Nationwide, thousands of dentists
have volunteered through the ADA to participate.
Crest Healthy Smiles 2010 donated 30,000 dental-health packets in 2003 for the
program. The packets, which include toothbrushes, toothpaste, and educational
materials, were distributed to participating children. About 8,000 packets are
printed in Spanish to distribute in areas that have many Hispanic residents.
In Florida, the FDA and many of its member-dentists have partnered with
the Florida Department of Health and the Department of Children and Families
to participate in Give Kids a Smile. Please contact your local affiliate association
for more details or call the West Coast Office at 813-931-3018.
Project: Dentists Care
Project: Dentists Care is a community of FDA dentists who volunteer their time
and services to provide a safety net of preventive and restorative dental care
to those in the greatest need. The mission of the project is to establish dental-access
programs statewide. Patients who use the services of this project are those
with the greatest unmet needs.
Working with local health-department dental clinics, migrant-worker health clinics,
other community health centers and institutional dental facilities, dentists
are joining forces and making a difference in the lives of those who are the
hardest to reach.
PDC has 44 affiliates, including 11 new affiliates, in the PDC network. In 2003,
1,416 dentists provided 19,001 hours of dental care to 28,781 patients who otherwise
might not have received the care they needed. The estimated value of all PDC
services performed in 2003 is $5,148,242.
In 1996, PDC joined the Florida Department of Health’s Volunteer Health
Care Provider Program (section 766.1115, F.S.). This program gives volunteer
dentists and other volunteer health-care providers’ sovereign immunity
and workers’ compensation. PDC recruits existing pro bono or reduced fee
dental-access programs and places them under the statewide PDC “umbrella.”
It also allows PDC to seek funds for its dental programs through local fund-raisers
or through public funding.
Project: Dentists Care has received the American Dental Association's Golden
Apple Award for "Excellence in Dental Health Promotion." In Florida,
this project is recognized as a key example of how local government; private
health-care practitioners and businesses can work together to make their communities
better.
Find Project: Dentists Care clinics in your area.
For more information about how you can volunteer and become part of this vital
team call (850) 681-3629, weekdays, 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. or e-mail: pdc@floridadental.org.
