CincySmiles has been a part of the community since 1909. Our name has changed over the years, but our mission has remained the same: to ensure that low income residents of Greater Cincinnati have access to dental treatment and prevention. Today we partner with volunteer dentists who give of their time and services, government agencies that understand the importance of good dental health, corporations who generously support our mission and individual donors who care about dental health.
The CincySmiles Foundation, formerly the Greater Cincinnati Oral Health Council, was established in 1909 by members of the Cincinnati Dental Society as The Free Dental Clinic. Members of the society and others in the community were concerned about the poor dental health of children in the Cincinnati Public Schools. The original mission was to identify school children from low-income families who were in need of dental treatment. It quickly became evident that without assured follow-up care, screenings were meaningless. One year later the first school dental treatment clinic opened, one of the first programs of its kind in the country.
Early partnerships with the city and county health departments and school systems served as many as 9,000 children a year in 13 schools. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Oral Health Council, then known as the Public Dental Services Society, joined the successful local battle for water fluoridation.
Cincinnati Public Schools, facing declining resources, withdrew its funding for its school treatment program in 1982. The Oral Health Council responded in 1984 by partnering with the Cincinnati Health Department to develop the first school based dental sealant program. Our program model has since been replicated in more than 100 other communities. That first sealant project now reaches 7,000 schoolchildren every year.
In the late 1980s, the mission of the agency was expanded to address dental prevention, education and treatment needs of all underserved groups in the community, including working poor adults, those with disabilities, the homeless and the frail elderly. The name was changed to the Greater Cincinnati Oral Health Council.
In the new millennium, the organization began to take a more active role in treatment, managing clinics in federally qualified health centers, a homeless clinic and a portable dental service that provided easily accessible treatment to Cincinnati Public Schools and head start programs.
Today, we serve more than 20,000 people each year. Our programs include the CincySmiles Dental Clinic, the Dental Road Crew, Donated Dental Services and the Oral Health Care Workforce Development Program. Services include access to health care, mental health services and dental care. The Dental Road Crew (DRC) provides comprehensive dental services to low income children in Cincinnati Public Schools. The DRC travels to schools, rehab centers and other social agencies to provide dental care to their students and clients. The Dental Portable Team and School Mobile Services work together to provide dental care, such as cleanings, restorative services and extractions with portable equipment. The Donated Dental Services Program (DDS) of Campbell County, Kentucky provides donated treatments and services to Campbell County low-income or uninsured residents through a partnership with the Campbell County Fiscal Courts. Finally, the Oral Health Care Workforce Development Program address the shortage of dental professionals in underserved areas of Greater Cincinnati by training individuals to be dental assistants. CincySmiles provides students with the skills they need to move out of poverty, establish a career path and secure employment in the oral health industry.