Patient Spotlight

Angela’s Story

“It’s more than just a smile.”

Extractions & complete dentures · connected through Samaritan Community Center

Angela, a Mint for More patient, before and after receiving her new dentures. — Before & after: Angela, a real Mint for More patient. Photo used with permission.

Angela’s teeth were breaking inside her mouth on a weekly basis. There were things she couldn’t eat anymore. The pain got bad enough that she missed work, and her kids could see it.

The emergency room could numb it. A couple of visits, a couple of shots, antibiotics. “They could never pull it,” she says, “so it didn’t do me any long-term help.” Follow up with your dentist, they told her. She didn’t have dental insurance. “That was not ever an option.”

So she called our partner Samaritan Community Center. They were full, but they knew where to send her: Mint for More’s extraction clinic in Centerton. “I was like, I live right up the road,” she laughs. “I could literally walk here.”

She figured it would be an extraction and done. It turned out seven teeth needed to come out. What she didn’t expect was what came next: a consultation with Dr. McCord, and a plan for a complete set of dentures at no cost. “I didn’t even know you guys existed,” she says. “I will forever be grateful for you guys.”

“I’ve never had a pretty smile in my life. This is something I’ve never had before.”

Angela is a mom of five. She’d never had straight teeth, not once, and she’ll tell you plainly that a stretch of her life when drugs had a hold on her made them worse. That chapter is behind her now. In her words: “It’s been a journey, but it’s done.” So along with everything else, she has been learning how to smile. Ask her if the muscles are sore and she grins: “A little bit. Just from the last half hour.”

The change reaches further than her mouth. Around the time her care started, she began taking better care of herself, eating better, and she’s lost fifty pounds. Now she’s excited to go to work and show it off.

Ask her about the team and she doesn’t hesitate: “Amazing. Y’all are fantastic. I have not met a single person in this building I don’t like.”

What changed

The ER couldn’t fix itNumbing shots and antibiotics, but “they could never pull it.” Now the problem is gone.

A door that knew the waySamaritan was full, and sent her to our extraction clinic instead. Seven extractions, then a plan.

Her first pretty smile“I’ve never had straight teeth ever.” Until now.

Sore from smilingNew muscles at work: “Just from the last half hour.”

Angela, a Mint for More patient, smiling with her new dentures.

We asked what she’d say to a donor. By then, everyone in the room was already crying.

“This has absolutely impacted my life and the way that I smile in pictures with my kids. It’s more than just a smile.”

Angela, to the donors who make free care possible

Angela found Mint for More because a partner who was full still knew where to send her. That’s the model: nonprofit partners like Samaritan Community Center connect neighbors to free dental care, and donors make the care itself possible. “It’s a complete transformation.”

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