UC Smiles

Once I heard about UC Smiles, the first thing that came to mind, is my own smile, as it's cost a lot of money and a lot of time to get my smile to be how it is today. Once I heard about what exactly UC Smiles does, I couldn’t help but to smile at the fact that as a school we are able to help so many children around our area gain their beautiful smiles.     

You’re probably wondering what exactly does UC Smiles does. It brings children to out college and gives them free dental cleaning, and X-rays. Starting this year they are now able to do fillings to help restore those chilren who aren’t able to normally get this. Once again this program is completely paid for by P&G, and neither the school, the students, or UCBA pay anything. 

UC Smiles first started in 2010 thanks to the dean, who wanted to start a community outreach to not only help the community but to help our own dental students get a chance to put into practice the things that they’ve learned. The first sponsor of UC Smiles was the Dental Care Plus group, and over time we then also partnered with P&G. Now P&G is our only sponsor, and they have been able to give children around our area free dental care.  

North College Hill was the first school to be a part of UC Smiles, and they have been participating ever since the beginning of the program. We now work with 7 Cincinnati public schools in the area, and about 50 to 60 student from each school. The children’s ages range anywhere from second to eleventh grade. UC Smiles has been able to help 1,489 students, and that number will only continue to grow. 

This has been going on every semester in the Walters building. Throughout the day, the children go through different labs in the Chemistry Department, Biology Department, and the Vet. Tech Department. They do interactive labs that a college student would do, instead of listening to the professor lecture. The goal is to not only provide dental care, but to also show children that college is an option. UC Smiles is a beautiful program made to give children beautiful smiles.