The ADA and Smile Kentucky are collaborating with Henry Schein Dental, Colgate-Palmolive, and DEXIS to kick off this year's Give Kids A Smile (GKAS) program on February 1 at the University of Louisville School of Dentistry.
Approximately 40 dentists, 200 dental students, and 100 other community members will donate their time and expertise to perform comprehensive dental care on some 300 underserved children from area schools.
Smile Kentucky comprises 150 local groups collaborating to provide more than $1 million in services since the program's inception in 2002, the ADA noted. The ADA's GKAS program provides oral health services to children in need and emphasizes the need for government agencies to allocate adequate funding for those services. Through GKAS, approximately 10,000 dentists and their teams volunteer to provide free oral health services to more than 400,000 underserved children across the U.S. all year long.
For the events, Henry Schein Dental provides professional dental supplies, such as gloves, gauze, masks, and patient bibs; Colgate-Palmolive donates toothbrushes and toothpaste for children at the events; and DEXIS donates the use of its digital x-ray systems, along with the expertise of its staff for dental schools, organizations, and large group practices requesting assistance. In addition, longtime contributor 3M donated 500 refills of dental sealant and etchant materials for those GKAS programs that qualified.
