The nation-wide event took place locally on Friday, Feb. 3 within the office of Susan Armstrong, DDS.
While the dentist office isn’t typically a favorite destination among children, the office of Susan Armstrong, DDS, located at 4 N. Main St., opened its doors to local Moorestown children on Friday, Feb. 4 from 8:30 a.m. to noon, as part of the Give Kids a Smile initiative.
Going hand-in-hand with February being National Children’s Dental Health Month, the GKAS program was founded in 2003 and asks dentists to provide free services to the local youth — many of whom are unable to otherwise afford dental treatment throughout the year. In Moorestown, three separate dental offices joined forces for the event, providing a combination of general dentists, a pediatric dentist and an orthodontist.
Celebrating its 15th year in operation, the Moorestown professionals who helped make this event possible included Richard Kaye, DDS, MSD, of Morrone and Kaye Orthodontics, Susan Armstrong, DDS, of Armstrong Pediatric Dental, and Christopher Esposito, DDS, and Karen Miller, DDS, of Esposito Family Dental. Taking part in GKAS, the American Dental Association Foundation’s signature access-to-care program, these providers worked to take x-rays, perform examinations and cleanings, apply sealants and conduct fillings.
“I’m a pediatric dentist in a wonderful, progressive community that has a lot of services to offer our families. However, not everyone in our community has the means to participate in all of these services,” Armstrong said. “I feel it’s a privilege and a responsibility to participate in Give Kids A Smile so we can provide dental care for these deserving children and give them a positive experience in our dental office.”
Servicing 50 children on the morning of the event, the dental professionals were also to perform approximately $25,000 worth of services at no cost. According to ADA Foundation statistics, they joined more than 130,000 dentists nationwide over GKAS’ years of operation to donate their services to help treat children.
In donating their services for the day, all of the dentists who provided expertise stood behind the belief that they each firmly stand behind a commitment to the Moorestown Dental Alliance.
This group is “composed of dentists from three separate Moorestown dental practices, all with very different backgrounds, but who come together as a community to help those under-served patients in Burlington County receive the necessary dental care they might otherwise not be able to obtain,” according to the alliance.
The participating dental specialists joined thousands of other dentists and volunteers across the country who have also given their time to provide free oral health education, screenings and treatment to underserved children. With all of this support, GKAS is working to ensure kids receive the dental services they need that will help set them up for a lifetime of oral health.
For more information on GKAS, visit: http://www.adafoundation.org/~/media/ADA_Foundation/Files/ADA%20Foundation%20Give%20Kids%20A%20Smile%20Gratitude%20Report%202015Nov03.pdf?la=en.
