At Their Service
Children’s dental health advocate Dr. Garza celebrates 20 years of care
There is a national crisis taking place among America’s disadvantaged youth, but from the bright smiles emerging from the Christina’s Smile trailer you might not know it. Dr. Richard Garza is the founder of Christina’s Smile, named after his daughter who died as an infant, and it’s his mission – and one shared by thousands of volunteers nationwide – to treat as many children as possible for painful and potentially deadly dental issues.
Celebrating its 20th year in 2009, Christina’s Smile will visit at least 20 cities this year with one of three fully equipped 48-foot trailers hauled – free of charge – by Roadway Trucking Company, a partner for the past 19 years. And it’s not just transportation help that Roadway offers; its employees are the main fundraisers for the nonprofit. “We’re allowed to focus on operations and they focus on fundraising,” Dr. Garza said.
When a trailer arrives in its host city for a three-day clinic, as many as 60 dentists, hygienists and others from the area already have signed on to help. Dr. Garza has the highest care standards for the volunteers and noted that only those professionals who exhibit the best patient care and highest level of technical skill are invited to participate in a clinic.
Inside the trailer is a complete dental care clinic with three state-of-the-art, fully functioning operatories, X-ray equipment and an instrument sterilization area donated by Patterson. “The children we’re serving deserve the very best and…we’re in a position to give it to them in large part because of the support we get from Patterson,” Dr. Garza said.
The trailer was designed to hold as many as 12 doctors and hygienists plus three or four patients, allowing as many children as possible to be cared for in the short window of time the clinic is in town. Dr. Garza estimated that 40 children ages 6 to 15 are served each day by the volunteers who participate in the clinic. They take care of everything from treatments, X-rays and sterilization to planning lunch for the other volunteers (which Patterson headquarters employees did for the clinic when it stopped in St. Paul, Minn., last September).
Dr. Garza even has seen the volunteerism go beyond the boundaries of the clinic. “Some of the dentists will bond with the patients on an individual basis and invite them into their practice to finish up their work free of charge,” he said.
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