Thousands of events nationwide help children improve their dental health

Today marks the kickoff of the ADA Foundation’s annual Give Kids A Smile program, which provides hundreds of thousands of children in need with free oral health education, screening, prevention and treatment services from thousands of volunteer dentists, dental team members, and others across the country. Give Kids A Smile is an anchor event of the American Dental Association’s National Children’s Dental Health Month.

“The mission of the ADA Foundation includes education and access to care, and nothing embodies those goals better than the Give Kids A Smile program. For 14 years Give Kids A Smile has worked to improve oral care for children, and its history is rich with examples of how we achieve those goals,” said Dr. Reneida Reyes, President, ADA Foundation. “Since its inception we estimate that more than 5 million children have been educated about the importance of good oral health care, and many of those same children have had access to basic oral care at GKAS events.”  

Henry Schein Dental, Colgate and DEXIS are the national sponsors of Give Kids A Smile Day, providing generous support for these events which benefit the dental health of hundreds of thousands of underserved children nationwide and teach them dental health habits that last a lifetime.

The GKAS program originated in 2002 in St. Louis. The American Dental Association launched it nationally in 2003 as a way for dentists to join with others in the community to provide free dental services to underserved children. Initially a one-day event in February, the program has since grown to include events of all descriptions, year-round.

For more information about how Give Kids A Smile programs are organized across the country, please visit http://www.adafoundation.org/gkas. To learn about mouth healthy habits, please visit http://www.mouthhealthy.org/, which features fun quizzes, slideshows, videos and articles about dental health topics for every age and stage of life, plus the ADA Dental Symptom Checker.