A family dentist in Wichita, Kansas is doing something big for area veterans — giving them free dental implants.
Dr. M. Dean Wright says he and his staff love to display their patriotism, but wanted to find a more meaningful way to give back to those who have served our country. So, he says, their dentist offices will begin offering free dental implants to area veterans who are otherwise unable to afford the procedure.
“A lot of these veterans aren’t covered by the VA,” Wright said. “They don’t have a very strong dental program for them. At best, they might get a set of dentures, if that, but they would never get an implant system like this to really improve their quality of life.”
While 99.7% of people believe that having a good smile is an important social asset, implants don’t just make teeth look better — they can make them function better, too. They can increase the ability to eat from 30% to 90%, Wright explained. There are many techniques and options available to treat missing, chipped, or misshapen teeth, but dental implants in particular have a 98% success rate in the scientific literature.
Not only is it a big favor to veterans, it’s something of a specialty for the family dentist.
“We do a special procedure where we attach somebody’s dentures to a small mini-type implant,” said Wright. “It’s a wonderful procedure. We’ve done thousands of them over the last 15 years. So we said, ‘That’s our niche. That’s the thing that we are confident with. Let’s look at doing that.'”
Financing dental care can be difficult for veterans without adequate healthcare coverage, especially when it comes to relatively new dental technologies like implants — even though the benefits for recipients could change their life and job prospects.
Yet Dr. Wright and his staff remain humble about their offer.
“It’s a small thing to do. But then again, what if everybody would do something small for our veterans? It would get gigantic, and we need to take care of those people who have taken care of us in the past,” Wright said. Research more like this. Find out more at this site.
