SIOUX CENTER, IOWA— On February 13th, 2024 a local dentist will donate their facilities, skills and staff to provide free dental care to children in need. Services provided include oral exams, x-rays, preventive (cleaning, fluoride, sealants) and restorative (fillings, tooth extractions) care. Due to the need for signed permissions and other documentation, Sioux Center Dental’s Give Kids a Smile event can only see children who were registered in advance.

This charitable event is hosted locally by Sioux Center Dental, owned and operated by Dr. Trevor Kuiper, DDS. The event is a spinoff of the American Dental Association’s National Give Kids a Smile Day. Sioux Center Dental partnered with the local I- Smile™ Coordinator, and the Sioux Center Community School District to plan and coordinate details of the event. This will be the first Give Kids a Smile event to be hosted in Northwest Iowa, and Sioux Center Dental hopes to repeat this event annually. 

As part of the screening and selection process, over 150 screenings were completed at the Sioux Center Community Schools, for students who had not had their mandatory dental screenings for school enrollment in Iowa. The screenings were completed by Amanda VanBeek, RDH of Sioux Center Dental along with the iSmile Coordinator Dawn Ericson, RDH. Together they identified over 50 students who have active dental infections, or have reported dental pain during the school day. 

“Seeing first hand how many children in our community come to school in pain every day was heartbreaking.” Amanda VanBeek, RDH of Sioux Center Dental said. “We saw dozens of children with visible black decay and large holes in their teeth, some of them leaving class daily due to dental pain, others struggling to eat or sleep due to untreated dental infections.”

Promise Community Health Center is the only dental clinic in the area that accepts medicaid and they lost both of their full time dentists last year, leaving hundreds in the area without access to dental care. Dr. Kuiper and his team are aiming to help ease the burden for several families in Sioux Center.

Nearly 1 in 4 children, aged 2 to 11 years, has untreated cavities in their baby teeth, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). While poor diet and oral hygiene certainly play a role, cavities are actually caused by a disease called caries, which is five times more common than asthma. The National Institutes of Health report that 80 percent of tooth decay is found in just 25 percent of children, primarily from low-income families. 

“Our team has seen and heard significant concerns regarding untreated decay in our school-aged children,” Dr. Trevor Kuiper, DDS of Sioux Center Dental, said. “Sioux Center Dental’s Give Kids a Smile event can help some children get the dental care they need, but a one-day event will never be enough. Our event is aimed at helping children in our community who are currently struggling to eat comfortably or live their best lives due to oral pain.”