Henry Schein, Inc. is calling on dentists and other oral health professionals to be heroes in their communities by volunteering their time and talent to provide free oral care to children in need as part of the ADA Foundation’s 15th annual Give Kids A Smile (GKAS) programme taking place next year.
The American Dental Association (ADA) launched the national GKAS programme in 2003 to help raise awareness of the critical need to expand access to oral healthcare for children in the US. Kicking off on the first Friday in February – and with events taking place year-round – volunteer practitioners participate in Give Kids a Smile by providing a range of free oral health services to underserved children, including education, screenings and treatment.
Registration is now open for dentists and oral health professionals interested in participating. Care providers looking for further encouragement to volunteer can check out Henry Schein’s Helping Health Happen blog for “15 Reasons to Give Kids a Smile” or visit the company’s Facebook page to watch a short video about the programme.
GKAS is the result of a public-private partnership between the ADA Foundation, Henry Schein, Colgate-Palmolive and DEXIS. Henry Schein has served as the programme’s official professional products sponsor since its inception, joining its supplier partners to donate more than $14 million in oral healthcare products used to provide free oral health services for more than 5.5 million children. In 2016, it is estimated that 300,000 underserved children are receiving care at 1,300 locations across the country. Care is being delivered by nearly 30,000 dental team volunteers, including more than 7,000 dentists.
“At Henry Schein, we are pleased to support healthcare professionals who share our commitment to expanding access to care for children in need, and we urge dentists and oral health professionals across the country to volunteer for this wonderful programme,” said Mr. Stanley M. Bergman, Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Henry Schein. “Give Kids a Smile ensures that each participating child is set on the path to good oral health, and we urge care providers to join us in ‘helping health happen’.”
According to the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), dental caries, also known as cavities, is the most common chronic disease of children ages 6 to 11 and adolescents ages 12 to 19. In addition, a study published by the Journal of the American Dental Association (JADA), the ADA’s flagship scientific publication on dentistry, indicates that, while dental caries is a multifactorial disease with many behavioural and community determinants, children from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds have a higher-than-average incidence of tooth decay.
