The University of Pennsylvania School of Dentistry is partnering with the Academy of General Dentistry (AGD) to host an outreach event, "Nation of Smiles, One Smile at a Time," on June 23 in an effort to provide care to underserved people in Philadelphia.
The event will be held during the academy's 2012 annual meeting in Philadelphia, and it is the third one in which the AGD and the AGD Foundation have partnered with a dental school to donate oral care to a community.
At the event, Pennsylvania dentists, hygienists, and students will volunteer to offer free examinations, fillings, extractions, pain relief, and additional dental care to an estimated 500 people.
At the AGD 2011 event in San Diego, AGD volunteers provided care to homeless veterans; the value of the provided oral health care services was approximately $80,000, or $625 per patient. In 2010, at the AGD's first outreach event in New Orleans, AGD volunteers provided nearly $100,000 in free oral care to approximately 180 underserved area residents.
