Thank you for being part of the KinderSmile Foundation village. We hope that you and your family are in good health. Your continued support has been truly appreciated! The year 2020 has proven to be a difficult year, but for KinderSmile Foundation, it was defined by silver linings.
Through the COVID-19 pandemic hiatus, when our Dental Homes were closed for three months, our Bloomfield dentists attended to over 36 teledentistry calls for various dental emergencies of infections and swellings. The ability to provide this service during the pandemic has been a valuable culture of health change this year, especially for our uninsured and underinsured patients, and has hinted to the original story that led Dr. Nicole McGrath-Barnes to found KinderSmile Foundation. In 2007, Deamonte Driver, a 12 year-old Black boy from Baltimore died from an untreated dental infection that traveled to his brain. His story was the sign that Dr. Nicole had been waiting for, causing her to establish KinderSmile Foundation, with a mission of providing underserved children with access to comprehensive dental care and educate children and their families about the importance of dental hygiene, envisioning a future where every child has access to a dentist, and preventable dental diseases are eradicated.
KinderSmile Foundation has been fortunate that through the pandemic the construction and outfitting of KinderSmile Community Oral Health Center of Trenton continued, enabling timely development of our programs, and further establishment of community partnerships in Mercer County. This new Dental Home fills a large gap in the community’s available resources, allowing underserved at-risk children and adults to receive high-quality comprehensive oral health care in a clean, welcoming, educational, and accessible setting. We celebrated the Ribbon-Cutting Ceremony on November 9, 2020.
As luck would have it, the morning of the grand opening, Dr. Nicole McGrath-Barnes received a call from Dr. Samson, an emergency room physician at Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton. Tymere, an 11 year-old boy with mild autism, arrived at the emergency room. After complaining of pain for several weeks, Tymere’s mother brought him to the emergency room with swelling the size of an orange on the right side of his face. Due to an established partnership with Capital Health Regional Medical Center, Dr. Samson immediately referred him to KinderSmile Community Oral Health Center Trenton. Tymere had never been to a dentist. Like many, Tymere’s family faced multiple barriers in access to oral health care. His mother stated that she had nowhere to take him in Trenton, and she does not own a car.
That afternoon, Tymere presented to the Dental Home with a serious infection in his permanent molar, and was given antibiotics. He returned one week later with a huge smile, no pain, and no swelling. He received his very first cleaning and extractions, and still has a long way to go with more extractions, fillings and root canals. His mother sat in tears with disbelief of how cooperative Tymere was. She said “thank you so much, my son has always struggled with people, but you made him feel comfortable and loved.” Dr. Nicole McGrath-Barnes replied “welcome to your new dental home!” Tymere leaped from the chair and ran to the rewards center, hugged Dr. McGrath-Barnes and slowly uttered “I love you because you don’t make me cry.”
Tymere’s story mirrored Deamonte’s, but thankfully, the ending was different.
The coronavirus pandemic has revealed the health inequities that continue to plague the inner cities, underscoring socioeconomic and racial disparities in access to care. Black and Hispanic Americans have been affected at four times the rate of white Americans by COVID-19. The rise in unemployment had further disparaged these communities. Despite the increase in need and cost of PPE and infection control supplies due to this pandemic, we continue our mission of providing care to at-risk patients while providing a safe environment to our staff, volunteers, and community, without seeking any additional fees from our patients. We continue to meet with staff and physicians at Capital Health Regional Medical Center and other community partners to educate and stress the importance of linking ER patients to our Dental Home, thereby helping the state of NJ reduce taxpayers burdens by opening our Dental Home doors.
Thank you for helping us serve the community and achieve our silver linings! We could not do it without all of you. Let’s come together and give more children and families a fighting chance to live. One smile at a time! #ItTakesAVillageKSF