Millions of kids across the U.S. have difficulty accessing the dental services they need to be healthy resulting in missed school days, lower grades, and fewer job opportunities as adults.

This year nearly 1.3 million kids living with restricted access to care in communities across the country received dental care and/or oral health instruction through the programs of America’s ToothFairy and the safety-net dental clinics they support.

The nonprofit organization recently published their 2023 Impact Report to celebrate a record-breaking year for the value of product donations distributed to safety-net dental clinics through their Dental Resource Program (DRP,) helping them provide clinical treatment services to 27% more children than in 2022.

"The financial grants and product donations from America's ToothFairy impact our mission by ensuring children have the preventive products they need to prevent decay,” said Dr. Sharon Harrell, Dental Director at FirstHealth Dental Care in Southern Pines, North Carolina, one of the 46 DRP members that received donated products in 2023. “Because our practice consists primarily of children with Medicaid as well as uninsured low-income children, expenses outweigh revenue. America's ToothFairy helps keep us afloat," Dr. Harrell added.

“For the nonprofit clinics that depend on our programs, every penny counts,” said Jill Malmgren, executive director at America’s ToothFairy. “When they receive donated toothbrushes, toothpaste, preventive products, and supplies to provide restorative treatment, that frees up more resources to expand staffing and clinical hours for kids who often must wait a year or more for a dental appointment. When our members have the resources they need they don’t just repair the damage of poor dental hygiene habits. They provide the dental home kids need to maintain good oral health in the future.”

There are many reasons why children don’t receive the dental care they need to be healthy including a lack of dental care providers—especially those that accept Medicaid, transportation barriers, and low oral health literacy. In addition to donated dental supplies, America’s ToothFairy also provides free educational resources to enhance the outreach efforts of their program members.

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When kids learn about the importance of a healthy smile, they are more likely to participate in dental care programs at their school and prevent tooth decay with good home care. After receiving a superhero-themed education resource kit from America’s ToothFairy, Sophie Parsons, executive director of Augusta Regional Dental Clinic (ARDC) in Fishersville, Virginia reported on the impact the resources had on their outreach efforts.

“They helped us engage the conversation with young patients and their parents during our community events," she said. "As a result, we have welcomed 454 new patients. That represents a 60% increase compared to the same period the year before!”

The Dental Resource Program is made possible by support from its Title Sponsor, TSC EcoSolutions (TSC,) the parent company of CrownBuyers. The company, which recycles dental scrap, signed on to support the program just months before the Covid-19 pandemic brought services to a halt for months causing some program members to close their doors permanently.

“Each year since the shutdown we have seen a steady increase in the number of children that have received clinical treatment services, but those numbers are still lower than they were before the pandemic,” Malmgren said. “2023 showed the most improvement since the pandemic but is still less than half the number that received clinical services in 2019.”

Many factors contribute to the slow recovery to reach pre-pandemic levels including the number of nonprofit dental clinics and programs that closed permanently, staffing and supply chain issues, and increasing operational costs. During the pandemic America’s ToothFairy shifted its focus to education in hopes of preventing a tidal wave of urgent cases once clinics could resume care.

“Much of what we did during the pandemic has carried over to today and really has significantly increased the number of kids we can educate about oral health,” Malmgren continued. “Our focus for 2024 is to continue our education and prevention initiatives while also providing the resources our members depend on to provide dental care for more kids.”

“It is absolutely our pleasure to support America’s ToothFairy and their Dental Resource Program,” TSC’s CEO, Matt Sanders said. He recently replaced his father and TSC’s founder, Dick Sanders on the organization’s Board of Directors. “At TSC we believe in doing well by doing good,” Sanders added. “I am excited about the good we will do together in the coming year.”

“We are grateful for the longstanding support of TSC,” Malmgren said. “We are thrilled to have Matt on our Board. He hit the ground running and introduced a new way to involve their customers in our mission with Scrap-4-Smiles. Through this special campaign, dental offices can still receive top dollar with their mail-in dental scrap and feel good knowing that a portion of the resale value will be donated to help our mission, over and above TSC’s annual underwriter contribution.”

In addition to TSC, America’s ToothFairy acknowledged SHOFU Dental Corporation, Septodont, SS White, Cosmedent, SmileMakers, Crest, and Colgate, who collectively donated more than 2 million dollars’ worth of dental supplies and equipment that were distributed to DRP members, helping them provide high-quality dental care for kids who usually must go without.

For more information about the impact of America’s ToothFairy in 2023, visit ATKids.org.

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