The Donated Dental Services Program (DDS) continues to grow here in South Carolina as several dentists have recently joined to help provide care. However, we still have pockets in the State where additional volunteers are needed.
The DDS program is a collaborative, direct way that the dental profession reaches out to individuals with special needs. These individuals are our most vulnerable residents: disabled, elderly and medically compromised people who can neither afford treatment nor obtain public aid.
The DDS program is designed by dentists and for dentists. The program is operated efficiently by the National Foundation of Dentistry for the Handicapped (NFDH) through DDS coordinators right here in our state. More than 14,100 dentists and 2,800 labs volunteer for DDS nationwide. For a quick introduction to DDS, watch this short video by Dr. Gordon Christensen, NFDH Board Member, at www.nfdh.org.
Participation could not be easier. Dentists and labs take care of the patients, DDS does everything else; no headaches, no red tape. A DDS Coordinator is the liaison between the patient, the labs and the dentists, answering any and all questions, assisting the patient, the lab and the dentist with anything and everything. The goal of DDS is to return patients to good oral health, enabling them to reach an affordable maintenance level.
If you have not signed up to participate in this program, please do so today. You can do through the national website mentioned earlier or call the SCDA today for information on how to get involved.
