(Charlotte, NC, January 10, 2023) Dental disease is preventable, yet most charitable oral health efforts focus on restorative care. This often creates a revolving door of “drill, fill, and pull,” where children in under-resourced communities have access to dental services only when in severe pain or in need of invasive and expensive treatment.
 
The education programs of America's ToothFairy equip families to prevent future tooth decay through awareness initiatives and educational tools designed to reach those who are the most vulnerable. The nationwide nonprofit organization receives support for its Health Education Resources and Outreach (HERO) Program from Align Technology, makers of the Invisalign® system, iTero™ intraoral scanners and digital services, and exocad™ CAD/CAM software.
 
2023 marks the 15th year of Underwriter support from Align, whose Title Sponsorship of the HERO program has helped America’s ToothFairy and their partners educate more than 10 million kids and caregivers about oral health.

‍“We continue to reach amazing milestones in our efforts to educate families about the importance of healthy smiles,” Jill Malmgren, Executive Director of America’s ToothFairy noted. “One good thing that came out of the pandemic was the new solutions we developed to get through to kids who were no longer reachable through our usual channels. Thanks to the support of Align, we could adapt to reach kids and their caregivers in unconventional ways. We not only overcame the challenges brought on by the shutdowns but Align helped us reach more kids than before the pandemic and build a stronger program that we can carry through into 2023.”
 
America’s ToothFairy began offering free educational materials on their website shortly after the shutdowns made reaching kids at their schools impossible. Since then, these materials have helped more than one million kids learn about the importance of oral health with.
 
“By offering oral health education materials on our website, we can clearly track the impact of the materials and connect with educators and oral health advocates that were unknown to us before the pandemic,” Malmgren added. “The process worked so well, that in the fall of 2022 we launched an additional resources page that provides translated versions of our most popular materials in languages including Arabic, French, and Spanish to help immigrant populations and kids around the world learn how to keep their smiles healthy.”
 
“Align is a company with a purpose to transform smiles and change lives and we’re proud to support America’s ToothFairy, an organization whose vision ties closely to our own, to help families in underserved communities learn how to prevent dental disease through the HERO program,” said Julie Paulsen, vice president of Corporate Social Responsibility at Align Technology and America’s ToothFairy Board Secretary. “We are excited to see how the online education tools we helped develop will continue to reach more children, their families, and caregivers.”
 
To see all the ways that the educational programs of America’s ToothFairy impacted kids’ oral health in 2022, visit ATKids.org.
 
 
 
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/CAM software. These technology building blocks enable enhanced digital orthodontic and restorative workflows to improve patient outcomes and practice efficiencies for over 234 thousand doctor customers and is key to accessing Align’s 500 million consumer market opportunity worldwide. Over the past 25 years, Align has helped doctors treat 14 million patients with the Invisalign system and is driving the evolution in digital dentistry through the Align Digital Platform™, 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 trained 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.