Godfrey Dentist | Alton Dentist - Dentistry With TLC

“I’m really happy and thankful for everything Dentistry With TLC has done for me. I am glad that I chose to come to Dentistry With TLC and I’ve been pleased with my dental work. This office has a comfortable and friendly environment.”

–Melanie V., Moro, IL | January 2011

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Dentistry With TLC Shares Their Heart

On Friday, May 13th Dentistry With TLC hosted Dentistry With A Heart Day. Dentistry With A Heart Day is Dentistry With TLC’s annual community service event. On this special day the doctors and staff of Dentistry With TLC volunteer their time and expertise to provide free cleanings, fillings and extractions to people who can not afford dental care. This year the volunteers were able to serve 80 patients in just five hours. This is the fifth year that Dentistry With TLC has held this community service event. Over the past five years they have served about 550 patients with $120,000.00 worth of free dental care. “We look forward to this day all year because it feels good to do our part to meet the needs of hurting people in our community,” states Dr. Anna Smith, owner of Dentistry With TLC.

Smith explains that the patients who are served on Dentistry With A Heart Day are not regular patients of the practice. “My staff and I have never met most of the patients here today. We simply open our doors and serve the first 80 patients who arrive, no strings attached.” Patients reported finding out about the event from many different sources including local newspapers, radio stations, church bulletins, internet, community service organizations and word-of-mouth.

The patients at Dentistry With A Heart Day are very appreciative of the event. Many patients reported that they had been living with constant pain. Steven Drulle of Wood River was very thankful to have his tooth extracted, “I’ve been dealing with intense pain. This day has been a blessing to me by removing an almost debilitating pain.”

Other patients, like Alicia Reynolds of Jerseyville, were thankful to be given an opportunity to have some dental work completed before their problems progressed. Alicia said, “I was able to get a tooth filled before it got too bad and had to be removed. I was worried that my cavity was too bad to fill.”

Pamela Kuehnel of Cottage Hills was one of many patients who reported not being able to go to the dentist for many years, “I haven’t had my teeth cleaned for ten years and they needed it.” Adeline Campbell of Wood River admitted, “I have never been to the dentist before. I am very luck and thankful that Dentistry With TLC provided me with this opportunity.”

Dentistry With a Heart Day - 2011

Any event involving dental work is sure to bring anxiety for some patients. However, at Dentistry With A Heart Day the anxiety level of the patients seemed to be softened by their sincere appreciation. “It’s great to see people volunteering their time and efforts to help others they don’t even know,” expressed Mike Carmi, a patient from St. Peters, Missouri. Mareeka Phelps of Alton told the volunteers, “You guys have given me the type of blessing that will make me want to keep a smile on my face.”

Dr. Smith attributes the success of Dentistry With A Heart Day to the selfless volunteers. She explains that most of the volunteers are employees at Dentistry With TLC. Others are friends and family members of employees. This year there were several former employees of Dentistry With TLC who returned to volunteer their services.

Ken Wienski, a patient from O’Fallon, Missouri shared, “My x-ray technician went above and beyond today. I sincerely appreciate her heart. All the people here are friendly, courteous and respectful while providing a blessing through their generous services.” Betty Witcher, a patient from Godfrey added, “These are very pleasant people. They act like they really love their patients.” Megan McDonald, a volunteer and dental assistant at Dentistry With TLC added, “One of the reasons I was attracted to working at Dentistry With TLC was because of their commitment to community service.”

Dr. Smith is glad to see that events like Dentistry With A Heart Day are becoming more common. There are now dentists all over the country who have heard of this idea and are implementing it in their own practices. “My husband, Travis, and I have never regretted developing Dentistry With A Heart Day”, says Smith. “We’ve been blessed with a great practice in a wonderful community. We feel that Dentistry With A Heart Day is one small way for us to express our appreciation.”