COSTA MESA, California--As part of its ongoing commitment to the dental community, CareCredit, has announced its commitment to the GIVE KIDS A SMILE program.
CareCredit, one of North America's leading patient payment programs, will be the founding donor of $100,000 to the newly established GIVE KIDS A SMILE Fund that will support expansion to a year-round access to care initiative. This initiative will enable dental practices and clinics to apply for financial grants via the American Dental Association Foundation to provide care beyond the February one-day event.
GIVE KIDS A SMILE is an annual one-day volunteer project to provide free educational, preventive and restorative services to children from low-income families. Observed the first Friday in February, this year's fifth anniversary event is Feb. 2. More than 2,100 programs are registered to participate, and more than 51,000 volunteers, including more than 14,000 dentists, will care for some 750,000 children.
GIVE KIDS A SMILE is now an annual centerpiece to National Children's Dental Health Month. A major initiative for the American Dental Association, GIVE KIDS A SMILE was designed to focus attention on the epidemic of untreated oral disease among disadvantaged children and to influence government and society at large to work with dentistry to craft common sense, market-based solutions to expand access to care for children in need and children with disabilities.
"In 2007, CareCredit will commemorate its 20th anniversary. Over the past two decades it has been CareCredit's goal to make dentistry more accessible to everyone and we are honored to support the ADA and dentists' efforts to bring necessary dental care to children through the GIVE KIDS A SMILE program," said Michael J. Testa, president, CareCredit.
"Over the past five years, the ADA's GIVE KIDS A SMILE has emerged as the largest charitable oral health care program in the country. Now we can build on that success by expanding the program into a year-round access-to-care initiative," added ADA Executive Director, James B. Bramson, DDS.
"CareCredit's generous gift as Founding Donor to the newly established GIVE KIDS A SMILE fund in the ADA's Foundation will help kick off this expansion and allow us to support worthy GIVE KIDS A SMILE programs financially. And it's important to note that every penny donated to the fund goes directly to access to care because the ADA absorbs all overhead costs."
