Blogger Mirissa Value, D.M.D., is a board-certified pediatric dentist with the American Board of Pediatric Dentistry. She is the interim program director of the pediatric dental residency and assistant professor at Meharry Medical School College of Dentistry in Nashville, Tennessee. Obsessed with entry to care, Dr. Value is an ADA Give Youngsters A Smile ambassador, supporting the coordination of nationwide outreach occasions to supply youngsters with dental houses. She earned her dental diploma from Harvard College of Dental Medication in 2019 and accomplished her residency coaching in pediatric dentistry at Boston Kids’s Hospital in 2021, serving as chief resident from 2020-21.
Six-year-old C.J. had a mouth stuffed with cavities. In school, he would conceal his smile, maintaining his mouth closed to keep away from bullying. At house, he would solely eat gentle meals, terrified of the ache consuming brought about. His faculty nurse and pediatrician tried to get him to open his mouth, to see the severity of dental illness, however he would by no means open. He was frightened of extractions and any dental therapy in any respect.
In February 2023, that nervous 6-year-old walked by means of the doorways to Meharry Medical School College of Dentistry, a participant within the ADA Basis’s Give Youngsters A Smile program. He obtained an applause as he took X-rays, he danced within the halls as he entered the clinics, and he designed his very personal sugar bug artwork. By the tip of the day, with pressing therapy begun and a plan in place for complete care, C.J. gave every of us a hug.
“When can I come again to the dentist?” he requested, his sick tooth packaged with take care of the tooth fairy.
What’s Give Youngsters A Smile?
Give Youngsters A Smile, the ADA Basis’s signature entry to care program, is a nationwide program that started in 2003. The purpose is to supply underserved youngsters with free oral well being care and assist set up dental houses for youngsters in want. Based on the ADA Basis, GKAS has grown to serve greater than 300,000 youngsters yearly. GKAS occasions happen all year long, with the bulk happening in February throughout Nationwide Kids’s Dental Well being Month.
My expertise with Give Youngsters A Smile
I started taking part in GKAS as a dental pupil at Harvard College of Dental Medication. With a ardour for working with youngsters and a concentrate on rising entry to care, I joined the planning committee for HSDM’s annual Give Youngsters A Smile occasion in 2016. The subsequent 12 months, I served as chair of this committee, serving to this system develop in measurement and transfer towards interprofessional collaboration. We provided free dental care, bodily exams and diet consults multi function constructing.
I knew immediately this was a program I might proceed all through my profession, so I utilized to attend the ADA Basis GKAS Group Management Growth Institute to turn out to be a nationwide GKAS ambassador. In 2018, I flew to St. Louis, Missouri, the place I took half in one of many largest GKAS occasions nationwide and realized straight from Jeff Dalin, D.D.S., co-founder of the St. Louis GKAS program. Upon returning to Boston, I used my information to proceed increasing Harvard’s GKAS occasion whereas additionally guiding others who needed to start out their very own occasions.
As we speak, I’m a board-certified pediatric dentist and interim pediatric dental residency program director at Meharry Medical School College of Dentistry. GKAS nonetheless stays the spotlight of my 12 months. As a substitute of doing the planning alone, I work with a staff of unimaginable younger professionals, the aspiring pediatric dentists at Meharry. The scholars, together with this 12 months’s co-coordinators, Tamera Thomas and Joshua Delaney, share my imaginative and prescient of reaching rising numbers of youngsters in want. This system has grown on Meharry’s campus to deal with almost 200 youngsters, and the whole faculty is concerned (and adorned!). Final 12 months, C.J. made a particular impression on my coronary heart, however there are such a lot of youngsters identical to C.J. every year who’re solely in a position to see a dentist due to GKAS packages nationwide.
You will get concerned, too
GKAS occasions may be giant, like ours at Meharry and Harvard, or small, contained to a neighborhood dental workplace. Every occasion has a profound affect. Participation begins by registering your program on the nationwide GKAS web site, ADAFoundation.org/GKAS, the place you may signal as much as request free schooling and prevention supplies from this system sponsors, Henry Schein and Colgate. You then recruit volunteers, publicize a free dental care day or work with a college to convey youngsters to your workplace, and do what dentists do greatest: study, clear and deal with tooth.
If I feel again on my dental profession to this point, one occasion every year stands out from all the remaining: Give Youngsters A Smile. The title captures each little bit of this program. By making the dental setting enjoyable and reasonably priced, with the help of the ADA Basis and plenty of sponsors, we really have the potential to reward youngsters wholesome smiles that have been by no means earlier than potential. We are able to really make an affect.
