Outreach Programs
Awarded the 2006 CWEE Silver Flame Partners of the Year Award and American Society of Association Executive's 2004 Award of Excellence, the Smile Again Program is a community service project of MDDS member dentists offering cost-free dental care to disadvantaged survivors of domestic violence in Denver in an effort to restore oral health and assist in recovery. Currently 171 dentists have enrolled in the program and over $800,000 in care has been donated/or is in progress.
"Explorer" is a 50 year-old national, co-ed program that matches the career interests of students (ages 14-20) with adult expertise and resources of sponsoring organizations. The idea is to show students what a career is really like and to help them make the right choices now to succeed later. In 2003, MDDS successfully established the first-ever Explorer Post in the country to be developed by organized dentistry. This program is co-sponsored by the Colorado Dental Association.
As an associate partner of this very high-profile event, MDDS dentists provide dental screenings at 9HF sites statewide. Special thanks to our member volunteers for making our partnership with the 9Health Fair such a strong and visible one. It is because of their participation that we are able to successfully educate our communities about the importance of oral health and its relationship to overall health.
As a benefit to schools and members who visit school groups to talk about dentistry, MDDS offers an aray of visual props, such as giant toothbrushes, tubes of toothpaste, and puppets with movable typo-dents and multi-grade level lesson plans, coloring/activity sheets, brochures, videos, storybooks, the MDDS Sammy the Saber Tooth Tiger mascot costume and so much more for use free of charge.
Children’s Events
MDDS is proud to sponsor community events and invites members to join us for Trick-or-Treat Street at the Children’s Museum of Denver in October to promote dental health education to parents and kids.
Community Service Recognition Awards ProgramThis program recognizes members who have made major contributions to patients with special needs and the underserved in both the Denver and world communities and contributions toward the betterment of the dental profession.
