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September 19, 2024 — Across the United States, nearly 58 million people reside in areas with a shortage of dental care professionals, and only 32.4% of the population typically receives access to adequate dental care.1 America’s ToothFairy is working to change that by enhancing access to oral health care for children in underserved communities through educational programs and preventive measures in regions lacking sufficient dental care providers.
Jill Malmgren, executive director of America’s ToothFairy, explained: “Dental disease is often preventable, but many oral health initiatives prioritize restorative care over prevention. This often results in a cycle of treatment—drilling, filling, and pulling—where children receive care only while experiencing severe pain or for costly, invasive procedures.”
To help break this cycle, America’s ToothFairy empowers community volunteers, oral health advocates, and dental professionals through its Health Education Resources and Outreach (HERO) Program. This initiative equips them with oral health educational materials and outreach kits. Their goal is to educate children and caregivers about the significance of oral health and effective strategies to prevent dental diseases.
Malmgren added that “Since 2020, with support from Align Technology, we've developed innovative methods to help oral health educators provide families with essential information for adopting healthy dental hygiene habits at home. We stress the importance of regular dental check-ups.”
During the organization’s 2024 fiscal year, which ended June 30th, the HERO Program positively impacted more than 900,000 children and caregivers, including:
• More than 600,000 children—33,500 of whom speak a language other than English—that were reached with downloadable resources accessed from AmericasToothFairy.org,
• 43,250 children taught with ToothFairy 101® Community Education Kits that were distributed to educators, public health workers, and oral health professionals and
• Nearly 268,000 people reached through two sponsored awareness campaigns that included educational materials and social media kits.
Julie Paulsen, vice president of Philanthropy, Inclusion, and Wellness at Align Technology and America’s ToothFairy Board Secretary, remarked, “A vibrant and healthy smile can have a lasting impact on a child’s life. Align is honored to partner with America’s ToothFairy on joint efforts to equip families and caregivers in underserved communities with the resources they need to help prevent dental disease and enhance oral health outcomes for children.”
Align Technology has supported America’s ToothFairy as a corporate underwriter since 2007. As Title Sponsor of the HERO Program since 2019, Align has helped the program reach an estimated 2.7 million children, caregivers, and parents.
About Align Technology,Inc.
Align Technology designs and manufactures the Invisalign® System, the most advanced clear aligner system in the world, iTero™ intraoral scanners and services, and exocad™ CAD/CAMsoftware. These technology building blocks enable enhanced digital orthodontic and restorative workflows to improve patient outcomes and practice efficiencies for over 266 thousand doctor customers and are key to accessing Align’s 600 million consumer market opportunity worldwide. Over the past 27 years, Align has helped doctors treat over 18.2 million patients with the Invisalign System and is driving the evolution in digital dentistry through the Align™ DigitalPlatform, our integrated suite of unique, proprietary technologies and services delivered as a seamless, end-to-end solution for patients and consumers, orthodontists and GP dentists, and lab/partners. Visit www.aligntech.com for more information.
For additional information about the Invisalign System or to find an Invisalign doctor in your area, please visit www.invisalign.com. For additional information about the iTero digital scanning system, please visit www.itero.com. For additional information about exocad dental CAD/CAM offerings and a list of exocad reseller partners, please visit www.exocad.com.
Invisalign, iTero, exocad, Align, Align DigitalPlatform and iTero Lumina are trademarks of Align Technology, Inc.
1 Bureau of Health Workforce, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Designated Health Professional Shortage Areas Statistics: Designated HPSA Quarterly Summary, as of April 1, 2024 available at https://data.hrsa.gov/topics/health-workforce/shortage-areas.
