Our annual free day of dentistry is fast
approaching
It’s hard to believe that our 3rd annual Dentistry from the Heart event is right around the corner! This year is set to be the biggest and best year yet and I couldn’t be more excited. Our free day of dentistry is a first come first serve event designed to help those in our community in need of dental care. Each person can either choose to have a free dental cleaning, a tooth extracted or a filling done.
In the last two years we have seen almost 300 patients and have given back almost $300,000 of free dental work. Each year we have over 50 volunteers and 8-10 dentists that give up their Saturday to help out with this project. It is also the day that I look forward the most in the year because of the great people that I meet.
A history of the event…
Back in 2009 I wanted to do something to give back to the community. I worked with Cary Magazine and started a Smile Makeover Contest. The contest was designed so that anyone in need of a new smile could tell their story and the readers of Cary Magazine would vote on the most deserving story. There were some really great stories. I remember that one winner had not smiled in over 20 years because of the way her teeth looked. In fact her muscles had atrophied to the point that it took several months of training to get her to actually be able to smile.
The contest got so popular that we had way more losers and not enough winners. At that point I started to feel that I was disappointing more people than helping. I got people excited at the possibility of a new smile and then had to let them down when they didn’t win.
See Cary Magazine Smile Makeovers here:
Read about Pat’s 2009 smile makeover here!
Read about Grace’s 2010 smile makeover here!
Read about Heather’s 2011 smile makeover here!
Turned the idea on its head…
It was Molly’s 5th birthday and we had taken her to Disney to celebrate. I was walking around Epcot and got to thinking about what we could do to include more people instead of excluding them. It came to me that instead of fixing lots of teeth for one person let’s fix ONE tooth for LOTS of people.
There’s a phrase “when the student is ready, the teacher will appear”. In this case the teacher presented itself to me in the form of Dentistry from the Heart. DFTH was started by a dentist in Florida who wanted to give back and he created an organization to help other dentists like himself host a free day of dentistry at their office. They give great support and are always available to lend a helping hand. We have teamed up with them over the last few years with great success.
Tell everyone you know…
This event can only be successful if people know that we are having it, and we need your help. Please pass along the information about the event to your friends, family, places of worship, etc. You never know who might suffer from untreated dental needs. You can find more information about the event at the following web address:
CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT DENTISTRY FROM THE HEART
Allan Acton DDS
