Aspen Dental’s MouthMobile launched its 34-stop national tour serving those who have served the United States by visiting nonprofit service organization Tampa Crossroads in Florida on February 23, where dentists and other volunteers provided free dental care to dozens of local veterans. Since 2014, Aspen Dental practices have donated more than $7.5 million in care and have helped more than 12,000 veterans as part of the company’s Healthy Mouth Movement.
“It is an honor to give back to our nation’s veterans, those who have fought for our nation’s safety,” said Michael Dickerson, DMD, an Aspen Dental clinician who provided care on board the 42-foot MouthMobile rolling clinic in Tampa. “We feel lucky to be involved with the Healthy Mouth Movement program to help everyone out, and hopefully what we’re doing is making a real difference in these veterans’ lives.”
“Community partners like Aspen Dental instill trust while delivering services that are in demand to our nation’s heroes, and Tampa Crossroads is happy to support the mission of the Healthy Mouth Movement,” said Brian Belcher of Tampa Crossroads. “The saying ‘it takes a village to raise a child’ holds true, and at Tampa Crossroads, we often say ‘it takes a village to get a veteran back on their feet.’ We’re proud to have helped provide a needed service to our local veterans here in Tampa.”
The Healthy Mouth Movement includes the MouthMobile and a nationwide Day of Service when Aspen Dental practices across the country open on a designated Saturday to provide free care to veterans. Florida has the third highest veteran population in the country, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs, and ranks 43rd out of 51 in terms of dental health. Also, 18 of 67 counties in Florida are located in dental health professional shortage areas.
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