An outpouring of community love in North Carolina

Burlington, N.C.鈥?It takes a community to Give Kids A Smile.

What you saw at the Alamance County Dental Health Center Feb. 2 was “an outpouring of community love,” said Dr. LaRosa Pinnix-Bailey, who has organized GKAS events in the heart of the North Carolina Piedmont since 2003. “I was amazed at how much fun everyone seemed to be having,” said state Sen. Tony Foriest of Graham, N.C.

By way of smiles, there was Ashley Staten, almost 7, insisting on “nothing sharp” at her first seating in a dental chair and high-fiving everyone 30 minutes, a good teeth cleaning, a mouth rinse and several sealants later. That in spite of being told she needs to have one diseased tooth removed. Second-grader Alyssa Palacio couldn’t stop smiling at all the fuss over her entrance as the clinic’s 100th GKAS patient for the day. Her mother, Julie, was “so excited” over a note from school about “free dental care” that she immediately scheduled daughter and son, Salvador.

By way of community, Mayor Ronnie Wall dropped by to spend some time with Dr. Roslyn M. Crisp on the Colgate Bright Smiles, Bright Futures van parked alongside the clinic and complementing the event with patient education and entertainment for the children. Colgate is the GKAS national product sponsor. The mayor left singing praises of “my first Give Kids A Smile experience. I’m amazed. They’re doing it for our community and that means a lot. Now we’ve got to figure a way to do more.

“Dr. Crisp and I are good friends,” the mayor said. They want to take Dr. Pinnix-Bailey’s Adopt A Smile component a step further into the community. They envision something in the way of “a partnership that would involve individuals in the community willing to adopt a child and pay for dental services and take some of the burden off the dentists.” For Dr. Crisp, Burlington is home, and she came back after dental school (“where else, the University of North Carolina”) to give back. “We came up with an idea to help tackle the problem in this area,” she said of their ambition to further engage the community.

The children GKAS serves “tend to fall between the cracks,” said Dr. Pinnix-Bailey. An Adopt A Smile component encourages dentists to choose children they meet during the GKAS event and agree to provide dental care in their office free of charge.

Two legislators came, said Alice Bordsen, a representative in the North Carolina General Assembly, because “we love what they’re doing” to Give Kids A Smile. “We do care,” said Sen. Foriest, a member of the Senate health care committee. “I don’t think a lot of people recognize how extensive the problem is.”

Ten dental students from the UNC School of Dentistry at Chapel Hill came with preventive poster and computer messages on oral hygiene, tobacco use, braces, piercing and grills. “We’re targeting 9 to 11-year-olds,” said Christian Johnson, a first year student. “We’ve had two testimonies already today (that) I’ll never smoke when I’m an adult,” added Jimani Mwendo, a third year student. Another student asked the ADA News representative, your reporter, whether the Association was committed to community service. “We are,” he replied.

Since we can’t introduce them all, let’s thank upwards of 100 volunteer dentists, hygienists, assistants, dental and pre-dental students, interpreters, office staff, Colgate representatives, artist for the day, food, traffic and other volunteers who served virtually on a one-to-one, volunteer-to-child basis.

“It’s beautiful what they’re doing here,” said Nievelis Bittmann, one of four interpreters on hand for the Spanish-speaking families, some 20 percent of the event’s patient population. “Over everything it’s a labor of love. Esta es maravilloso sobre todo una labor humana. (This is wonderful humanitarian work.)”

We can’t leave without introducing “Dr. K.” After all, it’s Dr. Elizabeth Krzysztoforska’s nine-chair clinic on loan for the day to Give Kids A Smile. A dentist in Poland, she went back to dental school at the UNC after coming to the United States in 1985. The dental clinic she started 10 years ago serves children to age 21 and pregnant women. “I work real hard. We see a lot of patients (6,000 visits a year). I said, I have to give something back.” No other country, she mused, would offer the opportunity and let her start again this way.

And wish Marshall Gilson, 42, luck. He’s the volunteer we spotted with Give Kids A Smile painted on his shiny pate, a retired civil servant so caught up with the spirit of community dentistry he applied to the UNC dental school and hopes to be admitted this year. Mr. Gilson wants to take dentistry to rural areas, elderly and dentally underserved patients who can’t get to a dentist. “What I lack in youth, I make up in experience and family life,” he told us. “Life’s been fulfilling.”