Last year, 3M Oral Care donated nearly $740,000 in products to the Dental Resource Program (DRP) of America’s ToothFairy, giving relief to clinics that serve children from low-income households and underserved communities.
These nonprofit clinics have seen an increase in emergency and urgent treatment for children who delayed treatment during the pandemic, and have also had to deal with the costs of reopening and reductions in staff, according to a press release.
The donations went to 27 DRP clinics and included products like the company’s Triple Layer Molded Face Masks, which helped to replenish essential PPE supplies.
“Many of our program members stepped up to help at the beginning of the pandemic by donating the PPE they had on hand to their local hospitals,” America’s ToothFairy Executive Director Jill Malmgren said, according to the release. “Months later they discovered that the extra PPE they needed to reopen safely was in short supply. We are so grateful for 3M who provided many essential supplies as soon as our members were allowed to reopen and continued to give through the end of the year.”
The costs to reopen and to obtain the resources needed to clean clinics and operatories after every patient have “been a staggering blow to nonprofit dental clinics.” These clinics can’t pass costs along to patients, making donations like the ones from 3M Oral Care critical.
Beyond the masks, other product donations included Paradigm™ DeepCure Curing Lights and Elipar™ DeepCure-S Curing Lights, hygiene products, crowns, adhesives and cements. The items were distributed to DRP members in 12 states, including Cass Community Health Foundation in Kansas City, MO.
“Our Cass County Dental Clinic dentists were super excited about this donation,” foundation President Cynthia Randazzo said, according to the release. “It is so helpful as we have spent so much unbudgeted funds on PPE as we reopened full-time to the children we serve.”
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Source: America’s ToothFairy