Smile. That’s what KIND executive director Julie Collett hopes every kid can always do. Smile. Bite. Chew. Live a life with healthy teeth.
KIND, which stands for Kids in Need of Dentistry, started in Denver in 1912, when a handful of local dentists volunteered their time to care for the teeth of the children of low-income railroad workers and miners. Today, more than 250 volunteers and paid professionals provide dental services for thousands of kids up to age 18 who need dental attention but whose families can’t pay for it.
Last year KIND had 7,400 patient visits in its school programs, dental clinics and Miles for Smiles, its traveling bus clinic. KIND is among many organizations applying for funding in this year’s Denver Post Season to Share program.
The day I visit Collett, she is at Denver’s Doull Elementary School overseeing the Chopper Topper program. Eighty children in the second grade are getting dental sealants on their emerging back molars.
Follow-up visits show the treatment to be effective in preventing early tooth decay. The children also get a short course on dental hygiene.
“In many low-income families, dental care is a luxury, not important,” Collett says. “But dental disease affects the whole body. Children may not even have toothbrushes, or they share a toothbrush. We’ve seen kids come in with abscesses all over their mouths. They have just learned to live with the pain.”
And that’s a pain Collett would like to dull.
KIND also provides oral exams, professional cleanings, fillings, emergency care and special services such as oral surgery and orthodontics on a case-by-case basis.
Parents are asked to pay 20 percent of what would be a customary fee. But Collett is quick to point out that no one is ever turned away because they lack the means to pay. Last year, KIND
finished with $90,000 in accounts receivable.
The Chopper Topper program is totally free to all second-graders in qualifying schools (where 60 percent of the student body receives a free or reduced-price lunch).
“I love my job,” Collett says. “I love this Chopper Topper program. It’s all good, and it’s all free.”
KIND, with an annual budget of $1.7 million, receives donations from foundations, individuals, planned gifts and in-kind donations of dental equipment.
Just as Collett says: It’s all good.
Kids in Need of Dentistry, or KIND
Address: 2465 S. Downing St., Suite 210
In operation since: 1912
Number served last year: 7,400
Staff: 18 full and part time
Yearly budget: $1.7 million
Percentage of funds that go directly to clients
and services: 90
