Forty-Six Children Receive Free Dental Care through the Monterey Bay Dental Hygienists’ Association
Speaking with Elsy Franco, mom of patient 5-year-old Alexia while she waited for her daughter’s appointment to be done, she explains how very grateful she is: “Today’s event helps out so much — not to have to pay out of pocket! Alexia needs a lot of dental work. It would take half of our rent money to pay for the services she is getting at Dientes today for free.”
Hunter Borden, age 5, is one such patient. His father, Noah, explains, “I am a self-employed tree trimmer and we don’t have dental insurance. Hunter needs 2 fillings. In the past, we have gone home to Thailand for dental and medical care, but that has gotten too expensive. This event helps us out financially so much. I am so impressed with Dientes, I am going to look at becoming a patient myself.”
February is National Children’s Dental Health Month. As a part of the month of recognition, the American Dental Association launched Give Kids A Smile Day in 2003. Now the event has grown to coordinate thousands of dentists benefiting approximately 350,000 kids each year. This is Dientes’ 12th year of providing free service for kids.
“It’s great to be a part of Give Kids A Smile for another year,” said Leslie Eggleston, RDH, B.S. and VP Dental Health Advisor for the Monterey Bay Dental Hygienists’ Association. “We are happy to provide hygiene services to these young patients. We want them to have a great experience so they want to keep coming back for great care.”
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Dientes Community Dental Care’s mission is to create lasting oral health for the underserved children and adults in Santa Cruz County and neighboring communities. 96% of Dientes’ patients live at or below the poverty level. Dientes accepts Medi-Cal (one of ten providers in Santa Cruz County) and offers sliding scale fees for uninsured patients. Dientes is a proud partner of United Way.