Happy New Year, from Smiles For Life!
Excitement here is growing: the 2019 Smiles For Life fundraising campaign is now just a few months away. We are confident we will equal or surpass last year’s total – thanks to the generosity of participating Crown Council dental practices across the United States and Canada, and to you.
Each year, beginning in March and running through June, hundreds of dental practices professionally whiten teeth in order to raise money. The funds go to seriously ill, disabled, and underprivileged kids all over the world.
Here’s how it works: participating dentists offer their patients professional teeth bleaching at greatly reduced prices. Payments are made not to the dentist, but directly to the Smiles For Life Foudation. Half of each payment goes to a local children’s charity chosen by the dentist, and the other half goes a children’s charity approved by Smiles For Life.
That’s all there is to it! It doesn’t get much simpler. Since it began in 1998, Smiles For Life has raised more than forty million dollars for children’s charities.
Smiles For Life has also sponsored teams of dentists visiting developing countries to provide dental care. “At the end of the day,” one of them observed, “it’s really not about how many teeth you fix … it’s about the people that you put your arm around, and let them know that we’re all God’s children.”
Participating dental practices throughout North America, all of them Crown Council members, donate their teeth whitening services. Supplies are donated by longtime Smiles for Life supporter Ultradent, the maker of Opalescence teeth whitening gels.
Crown Council is an association of dental professionals who are committed to promoting oral health, fighting oral cancer, and to serving their communities and children’s charities through Smiles for Life.
Some of it has supported field work in the Dominican Republic, where teams of volunteer dentists travel to work on the teeth of the people living there. Smiles for Life partnered with the humanitarian organization Esperanza on a trip in early 2018. But dental team volunteers say that simply focusing on the teeth they fix is missing the point.
Nearly half of the people in the Dominican Republic lives on less than four dollars a day. Along with Esperanza, the goal of Smiles for Life volunteers is restoring hope and dignity.
The teeth whitening campaign takes place every year from March through June. Participating dental practices in the United States and Canada, all of them Crown Council members, donate their services to teeth whitening patients. Supplies for the campaign are donated by longtime Smiles for Life supporter