There’s a question we hear a lot. How did Mint for More get started?
Short answer: it started with a toothache. Longer answer: back in 2016, the team at Mint Dental Care started setting aside time to treat neighbors in our community who were in pain and had nowhere to go. No formal plan. No logo. No nonprofit paperwork. Just a dental team saying “we have time on the schedule… let’s use it.”
That impulse turned into something way bigger than any of us expected.
Where It Began
In 2016, we started treating people who didn’t have access to a dental home. People with infections. People who’d been living with broken or missing teeth for years. We didn’t have a name for what we were doing. We just kept showing up and doing it.
By 2022, the work had grown to the point where it needed its own structure. We officially launched Mint for More as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a simple mission: partner with local organizations to provide essential dental care to neighbors in Northwest Arkansas who need it most.
What We Do
Mint for More focuses on three areas where we can make the biggest immediate impact.
Urgent care. We see patients dealing with pain and infection — the kind of problems that don’t wait for insurance approval or a payment plan. These are extractions and treatments for people whose only other option is the ER, where they’ll get antibiotics and a bill but not the actual dental care they need.
Dentures. Losing your teeth changes everything. How you eat, how you talk, how you feel about yourself. We provide dentures to patients who’ve lost their teeth and have no way to replace them. Watching someone see their new smile for the first time never gets old. Not once.
Children’s dentistry. We work with local schools and organizations to identify kids who don’t have access to regular dental care. Some of these children have never seen a dentist. We bring them in, take care of what needs to be done, and try to set them on a healthier path before small problems become big ones.
The Partners Who Make It Possible
Finding the neighbors who need help, building trust, navigating the social services side of things — that takes partners who are already deep in that work. Organizations like Peace at Home Family Shelter, Arkansas Children’s Shelter, Saving Grace, and 17 others across Northwest Arkansas. They connect us with the people who need care. We provide the dentistry. Together, it works.
That’s what happens when a team decides that doing good work and doing good in the world aren’t two separate things.
Why We Keep Going
This work isn’t always easy. There are days when the schedule is packed and the team is stretched. But then you’re in the chair with a patient who drove 45 minutes because they heard you might be able to help — and they haven’t been able to chew on the right side of their mouth in two years. Suddenly, none of the hard parts feel that hard.
Mint for More exists because we believe dental care is a basic human need, not a luxury. And we believe a local team in Northwest Arkansas is in a unique position to meet that need in a way that’s personal, direct, and lasting.
Every donation goes directly toward providing dental care for our neighbors. A $25 donation covers an emergency extraction. A $500 donation provides a full set of dentures.