Giggles and Grins at Roseman’s Annual Give Kids a Smile Event

February 3, 2025 By Marie Schildknecht
College of Dental Medicine

The College of Dental Medicine provides 562 children with oral care during their annual Give Kids a Smile® event.

On Friday, January 31, 2025, the College of Dental Medicine hosted its 13th annual Give Kids a Smile® event. During the event, students and faculty provided 562 of our community’s most vulnerable children with roughly $505,000 in oral health screenings, coronal polishings, Fluoride placements and hygiene instruction.

These children were also given $100 vouchers toward additional needed procedures. Assistant Dean for Oral Healthcare Education, Dr. Ryan Moffat, hopes these certificates will encourage families to return and make Roseman their dental home.

“We feel it is highly important that we don’t just provide care on a single day,” he explained “but that we set up dental homes for children where they can come again and again and establish a lifelong habit of good oral healthcare.”

Young girl practices brushing technique on a stuffed animal during Roseman's annual Give Kids a Smile event. Young boy smiles while holding up dental suction device during Roseman's annual Give Kids a Smile event. Student performs oral health screening on a young patient during Roseman's annual Give Kids a Smile event.
Young boy practices brushing a large set of teeth during Roseman's annual Give Kids a Smile event. Young boy smiles broadly during oral health screening at Roseman's annual Give Kids a Smile event. Dentist grins while providing dental care to a young patient at Roseman's annual Give Kids a Smile event.

In all, 440 students, 50 faculty and staff, and 4 donors contributed time, talents, and resources to this year’s Back to School Brush Up. We are especially grateful for our student committee members: Logan Ponder (DMD, Class of 2026), Amritpal Badwalz (DMD, Class of 2026), Gor Zalyan (DMD, Class of 2026), Ivan Alpizar (DMD, Class of 2026), Jahandar Farrokhnejad (DMD, Class of 2026), Josh Havlik (DMD, Class of 2026), Mariah Newman (DMD, Class of 2026), Nevin Jensen (DMD, Class of 2026), Perry Bachstein (DMD, Class of 2026), Quinten Ashton (DMD, Class of 2026), Sandhra Sushilkumar (DMD, Class of 2026), SangWon Kang (DMD, Class of 2026), Suchita Bandarupalli (DMD, Class of 2026), and Susanna Huang (DMD, Class of 2026).

We would also like to give a special thanks to this year’s sponsors the American Dental Association, Henry Schein Corporation, Marathon Petroleum Corporation, and Treasure Tower.

 

This program, established by the American Dental Association in 2003, seeks to ensure all children have access to quality oral healthcare. They accomplish this by helping local and federal assistance programs, community centers, dental schools and societies, health centers, and private practitioners host oral healthcare education, screening, or treatment events for underserved populations in their community.