More than 400 Aspen Dental Offices provided free dental care for 3,000+ veterans on June 11, breaking down barriers to care
On Saturday, June 11th, more than 400 Aspen Dental locations opened their doors for the 8th annual Day of Service to provide care to more than 3,000 military veterans and their families, resulting in $1.8 million in free dental services. Medical professionals and care teams in the Aspen Dental network of independent offices broke down barriers to care and treated veterans' most urgent dental needs, from fillings and extractions to hygiene and basic denture repairs.
"Our annual Day of Service is core to our mission and it's something that our team can rally around every year," said Bob Fontana, founder and CEO of Aspen Dental Management, Inc. "I'm honored to receive this recognition on behalf of the teams across the Aspen Dental network who give of their time and expertise to care for veterans, and I'm also proud of the message that our team has sent through this campaign. As an industry, we must do more to connect with vulnerable communities and make sure that all members of society have access to high quality, affordable dental care."
Millions of Americans struggle to access dental care every year, and veterans are no exception – in fact, U.S. veterans are ineligible for dental benefits through the Veterans Administration unless they're 100% disabled, have a service-related mouth injury or were a prisoner of war.
The success of this year's Day of Service builds on the ongoing impact of Aspen's Healthy Mouth Movement (HMM), a community-giving initiative launched in 2014 to deliver free dental care to veterans in need across the country. Since the launch of HMM, dentists and their teams from Aspen Dental-branded offices have donated over $26 million in dentistry services to more than 33,000 veterans and people in need. For more information about Day of Service and HMM, visit www.HealthyMouthMovement.com.
