Get Involved with Dental Charity Organizations for the Holidays
The holidays are a great time to get involved with your local community charity organizations, but did you know you can also work with nationwide dental health organizations? Your expertise in the industry and charitable donations will help to benefit these charities throughout the holiday season and beyond.
National Children’s Oral Health Foundation (NCOHF/America’s Tooth Fairy)
As a dental provider, you’ve seen and heard stories of parents who can’t access professional levels of dental care for themselves and their children, but what if you could help them to achieve what seems like a total impossibility? America’s Tooth Fairy is one of the leading providers of care access for disadvantaged children.
NCOHF provides the ability for you to host a smile drive: a fundraiser in which you collect oral care supplies like toothbrushes and floss for children in your area. As well as this, NCOHF also provides educators and professionals with prevention and education programs that stop the “revolving door” of treatment where kids only get care when things have gotten so bad as to be debilitating.
Learn more about NCOHF’s resources and programs here: https://www.americastoothfairy.org/programs-resources
America’s Dentists Care Foundation, Missions of Mercy (ADCF/MOM)
ADCF is a Wichita, Kansas based charity that offers oral health care services to underserved demographics across the United States. Their company supports Missions of Mercy (MOM) clinics as well as other practices that provide free or low cost services to clinic attendees.
Volunteers for clinic programs should have expertise in the dental industry, from hygienists to data entry clerks. As well as this, you can offer your volunteer services through other means, such as food service and equipment loading. ADCF keeps a nationwide list showing where clinic programs are held, so you can check back to see if they will be in your area or if a local business will support a free clinic program.
Learn more about ADCF and MOM’s volunteer programs and initiatives here:
https://adcf.net/attend-volunteer/
Dental Lifeline Network
Dental Lifeline Network is a nonprofit founded in 1974, providing access to dental care and preventative education programs for low income individuals as well as those who are elderly and have permanent disabilities, making access to even local services much more difficult.
DLN prides itself on being able to improve the oral health of those who are unable to travel or get the help they need in regards to their dental hygiene. Direct service programs coordinate with over 15,000 volunteer dentists and almost 4000 lab technicians to provide helpful oral care services.
Learn more about how you can get involved with DLN’s mission here:
https://dentallifeline.org/get-involved/
Give Back a Smile
A product of The American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry Charitable Foundation (AACDCF), Give Back a Smile is a charity that offers victims of domestic violence the opportunity to feel good about smiling again, through the implementation of service programs that help heal dental injuries caused by intimate partners. Volunteer dentists and cosmetic surgeons provide patients the ability to beautifully recreate something that has been lost: their smile, confidence, and dignity.
Learn more about Give Back a Smile’s mission and listen to Grammy Award winner Billy Porter talk about the program here:
Dentistry from the Heart
Spanning across several countries, including the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, and Puerto Rico, Dentistry from the Heart is a nonprofit focused on helping those in need of dental care find providers that can take care of them free of charge.
Championing their slogan “Smile, it’s Free”, Dentistry from the Heart connects distinguished dentists with those in need of care regardless of where they live and what their personal income may be. This wide-ranging network of providers means that there is almost always someone available to help.
Check out the story, mission, and how to get involved with Dentistry from the Heart at:
https://dentistryfromtheheart.org/
Dentists for Veterans
Many people don’t realize that the Veteran’s Association (VA) doesn’t always pay for each and every dental procedure that veterans require. This lack of coverage can result in damaged and painful issues with the teeth and gums over time. Dentists for Veterans gives back to those who serve by providing them with various dental procedures for free.
You can help through donation of time and resources, and volunteers are always welcome. If you’re looking to give back to our nation’s best, Dentists for Veterans provides the best option.
Learn more about DFV’s mission to help vets here:
http://www.dentistsforveterans.org/about-us/
Global Dental Relief
Dental care for children is a hotly debated topic in the US healthcare industry, but what if you had a chance to help children learn about oral care and provide cleanings worldwide?
Global Dental Relief offers you the option to travel to countries across the globe in order to provide potentially life-saving dental care to disadvantaged children in remote communities. There, you will create relationships with children and their mentors about how to prevent tooth decay as well as foster good oral health habits.
Find out more about GDR’s worldwide mission to provide dental care to thousands of children at:
https://www.globaldentalrelief.org/about-us/history/
Operation Smile
Millions of children are born with cleft palates and other oral deformities each year. Operation Smile works towards building a better, brighter future for these children by offering free and reduced cost cleft palate surgeries, often for as little as $240 in monetary contribution per procedure.
OS knows that not every child has access to safe, affordable cleft palate surgeries, so their mission works towards creating a world where every child has the opportunity for a new smile, no matter the cost.
Act now to become a general or medical volunteer for Operation Smile, or simply provide a contribution to the cause at:
https://www.operationsmile.org/act-now
Dentaid
As a dentist, you are probably aware of the amount of people who lack access to healthcare across the globe, and might be wondering about what you can do to help. Dentaid has a simple, easy to understand mission: provide the necessary tools and expertise to send dentists around the world to perform lifesaving and life changing procedures to those in need.
The primary purpose of Dentaid is sending “kits” and surgery tools to disadvantaged communities that may lack expert oral health care. You can contribute through expert volunteerism as well as monetary donations. Based in the UK, Dentaid reaches across the oceans in order to create a safe, healthy environment for dental care to any and all.
Find out more about getting involved in Dentaid’s mission here:
https://www.dentaid.org/volunteering/
Healthy Smiles, Healthy Children {American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry (AAPD)}
Every dentist knows that tooth decay is the most common childhood disease, and preventing this disease can be a lesson in aggravated patience. Ensuring that both parents and children are educated in proper oral health techniques as well as care is essential to preventing the revolving door of cavity filling and gingivitis.
The AAPD is connected to more oral health organizations than any other charity, and all these friends come with some pretty great perks for children. The mantra of “Big Love for Little Teeth” is best seen in their adoption of numerous oral health programs that benefit children from all walks of life.
Learn how donations monies are used and how to get involved here:
https://aapdfoundation.org/what-we-do/how-your-donations-are-used/
Special Care Dentistry Association
For individuals with special needs, there can be a disconnect between their disability and the availability of professional dental care. The SCDA works towards making connections between expert dentists and this underserved demographic, whether it’s something as simple as a cleaning or a more complex root canal.
As well as this, the SCDA prides itself on being one of the leading organizations for professionals looking to boost their practice’s training in serving patients with special needs, whether young or old. If you are a dentist and want professional resources to utilize in your own practice, the SCDA has you covered.
Learn about the mission and purpose of the SCDA at:
https://www.scdaonline.org/page/MissionandVision
Charitable Smiles
Charitable Smiles’ goal is simply “Help as many people as possible.” Rather than be confined to certain geographic areas in the United States, CS helps patients from all walks of life and ages to experience expert dental health care no matter what their story is.
From routine cleaning to tooth extraction and more complex procedures, CS uses existing practices to offer chair time to disadvantaged demographics, meaning that your donor dollars go towards treating patients; as a dentist, your best donation can be that chair time for a child’s first tooth cleaning, or their grandparent’s root canal.
Check out the vision behind the mission and get involved at:
https://www.charitablesmiles.org/
All of these charities are making an impact for dental health education and service this holiday season, will you join them? Give your community the gift of better oral care as well as the knowledge of how to improve their dental hygiene at home.
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