About Us
Mission
The Smile Tree is a non-profit, 501c3 organization whose mission is threefold:
- To ensure delivery of critically needed oral healthcare and education to children in Guatemala, Nepal, India and Vietnam, with more projects in more countries planned
- To provide sponsoring dental practices fun and rewarding ways to show how much you care
- To grow your practice by ensuring your good works are not a ‘well kept secret’, either from your patients, or the community at large through a coordinated and ongoing practice branding and image building campaign
All three missions are accomplished simply by adopting Smile Tree clinics, then sharing the good news with patients and the community through use of the materials the Smile Tree frequently delivers participating practices; what we call Branch Offices.
SmileTree in the News
History
The Smile Tree has been in the making since 1997. In that year, it’s parent organization, Climb for a Cause (www.climbforacause.org) was founded to provide critical oral health care to children in desperate need of oral health care and education. Until the creation of the Smile Tree, supporting this cause meant donning hiking boots, back packs, and climbing breathtaking mountains like Mt. Rainier, Mt. Hood or Yosemite’s Half Dome. Smile Tree now allows practices all over America to help without ever having to leave home! By adopting Smile Tree clinics, your practice can stop the suffering and enhance the lives of over 250 children a year for each clinic you adopt! To demonstrate its appreciation, AIM Dental Marketing will provide the needed patient and community relations tools you need to educate patients and the community about your status as a “branch office.”
It’s all about giving hope to children most of us will never meet, and “doing well by doing good.”
Cause Related Event Marketing – Webinar
Meet the Climb For a Cause Advisory Board
Clinics
Guatemala
Guatemala clinics typically provide the first dental care in these children’s lives. Clinics free children from chronic pain and infections that result from pervasive dental decay. With time and education, dental care provides these children with strong smiles and longer, healthier lives.
Clinics are held in villages located in the Mayan Highlands of Guatemala. Clinics are held in local schools in classrooms that are converted to dental clinics with the use of portable dental units, air compressors and generators.
Each clinic provides children with an exam, cleaning, and full care as needed including fillings, extractions and anterior composite restorations. Each child receives a toothbrush and oral hygiene education. Clinics are held in the same locations every two years to insure continuous care and education for each child.
Nepal
Nepal clinics typically provide first time dental care for children, freeing them from chronic pain and infections. We are dedicated to the children we treat – clinics are a rich, intensely rewarding experiences for children and the volunteers who serve them.
Nepal clinics are held in a charity boarding school in Kathmandu, which provides clinic space and eager students who serve as translators and help with overall clinic logistics. Clinics treat children from local orphanages, charity schools and more remote villages.
Since clinics have been operating at this location for the past 10 years, many returning students have “perfect teeth” and are well versed in oral hygiene. We continue to treat a blend of first-time and returning population to reach more children, while providing long-term patients with continuing care.
In addition, clinics are held in a more remote location in the village of Bandipur. With the assistance of a strong local partner, we hold 1-2 clinics a year in this magnificent village location surrounded by the high peaks of the Annapurna range. Children often walk several hours to attend local schools and, for these students, access to dental care is non-existent.
Each clinic provides children with oral health education, a comprehensive examination by a qualified professional, a professional cleaning and full care as needed including fillings, extractions when required and anterior composite restorations. Each child receives a toothbrush and oral hygiene education. Clinics are held in the same locations every two years to insure continuous care and reinforced oral health education for each child.
India
Clinics are held in the spectacular town of Leh, situated at 12,000 feet at the base of the towering Himalayas. Our local partner, the Ladakhi Lion’s Club hosts the clinic in rooms that are converted to dental clinics with the use of portable dental units, air compressors and generators.
Children in Ladakh come from widely diverse backgrounds, but they share a lack of access to any type of preventive dental care. Our clinics provide children with an exam, cleaning, and full care as needed including fillings, extractions and anterior composite restorations. Each child receives a toothbrush and oral hygiene education. Each school population is treated every two years to ensure continuous care and education for each child.
Vietnam
Our newest location — SmileTree’s involvement with Vietnam clinics directly addresses the need for dental care in Vietnam by offering modern diagnostic, emergency, corrective, preventive and educational dental services—all for free.
The Smile Tree fulfills its mission in Vietnam through three areas of service: a Dental Clinic in Da Nang; a mobile dental trailer that treats children at primary schools in the Da Nang area; and dental outreach trips that are set up at rural primary schools and staffed by dental volunteers
On these trips, dental staff are able to treat at least 100 children in a single day. The program enables the Smile Tree to bring happy, healthy smiles to thousands of children, contributing to their overall health and well-being.