Imagine eating without your teeth. This is how my friend Charles feels on a daily basis. Charles is a 62-year old homeless man who got his dentures stolen along with the rest of his belongings when he was sleeping. “My gums are sore. It is hard for me to eat hard stuff because I can’t smash the food. I’m embarrassed to smile now because I don’t have a good one,” says Charles.

Charles is not the only one suffering. Many homeless and low-income people are in dental pain. Untreated dental issues could lead to serious health problems such as heart disease and cancer. Only free or low-cost clinics can help these people, but many of these clinics are deprived of resources and have long wait lines. COVID-19 has exacerbated the oral and healthcare crisis, and more people are calling these clinics seeking help. Like Lubbock KIDS Dental and Well Child Dental Center, many of these clinics are struggling to stay afloat.

“We have kids living with grapefruit-sized abscesses for over three months who can’t eat or drink and there’s nothing we can do for them because we can’t get P.P.E. It’s been just horrible, and given the growing number of infections here, I’m afraid things are going to get worse," says Kay Kennel, the chief officer of Lubbock KIDS Dental, a clinic that has a list of 50 children awaiting emergency surgery.

“I’ve been wearing the same mask for the past couple weeks. My dental assistant has been frantically calling dealers to purchase Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) with no luck. With our small budget, we are not prioritized by dealers to get the supplies that we need,” says Dr. Lam, a dentist at Well Child Dental Center, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that provides care to the underserved. If Dr. Lam’s office does not get PPE in the next couple days, her dental office will close, leaving many underserved people in dental pain with no hope of getting help.

It is time for us to speak up before more people are “forgotten” and left without care. This letter implores dental and healthcare companies to help by donating $1,000 in supplies to free or low-cost clinics. If every company did its part and donated, these clinics would have more resources to fight the oral and healthcare crisis. We need more signatures to open up conversations with these companies about donations. Sign this petition today because Charles, just like everyone else, deserves to be happy and healthy, and please share. 

Dental clinics that need your support - https://bit.ly/2ZjbPr3

P.P.E. Shortage in NY Times - https://nyti.ms/38R39ev

Join the community of dental professionals who are making a difference everyday and pushing for positive change in dentistry. https://bit.ly/3gQxwok

Sincerely,

Dr. Anh La, DDS

Dr. Loretta Lam, DDS

Ashley Flachner, Manager, UCSD Free Dental Clinics

Nancy Lashley Sullivan

Dr. Marilyn Calvo, DDS

Dr. James Chae, DDS, MS

Dr. Jay Grossman, DDS, Founder of Homeless Not Toothless

Dr. David Chan, DDS

Dr. Carlos de Carvalho, DDS

Caroline Nguyen, President, Pre-Dental Society at UC Irvine 

William Fang

Kavina Patel

Jermii Lee

Priscilla Liu

Anna Mai

#smilesforall