He had lived with dental pain for years.
Sleep was hard. Cold drinks were impossible. Hot food had to wait until it cooled to room temperature. Some nights the pain kept him awake. Most days it cost him work he could not afford to miss.
When the pain got too sharp to manage, he went to the emergency room. More than once. Each time, the answer was the same: a prescription for pain meds, a recommendation to see a dentist, and a bill on the way out. The ER could not actually fix his teeth. No emergency room can.
He tried the local community clinic. He was, in his words, “right under the threshold” on income. Right under, meaning he did not qualify for the subsidized rate. The clinic could pull a tooth, but it cost about $80 each, and there were a lot of teeth. Every other place was, in his words again, “way too much money.”
So he kept waiting.
The gap that Mint for More was built to fill
There is a gap in dental care that almost no one outside of dentistry sees clearly. He sat right in the middle of it. Not poor enough to qualify for the safety-net programs. Not insured enough for private dental care. Working, paying his bills, raising grandkids, hiding his mouth so they would not ask why his teeth looked the way they did.
This is who walks into Mint for More.
He came to us through one of the nonprofit partners we work with. We do not accept self-referrals. We do not run applications. We do not ask for income verification. Our partners already know the families they serve, and when they tell us a neighbor needs care, we schedule the visit.
A few weeks later, the work was done. Extractions where they were needed. Dentures fit and delivered.
What he said afterward
After the dentures were in, Chris Hauth, our Executive Director, sat down with him to ask how it felt.
“Just self-confidence. I can already tell. I wanted to show my teeth to everybody like never before. I wouldn’t even open my mouth at all because my grandkids and other family members would be like, ‘Would you even get your teeth fixed?’ So I would kind of hide away. I hated it on jobs. I hated being in front of customer people because my teeth just looked really bad.”
She asked whether he thought it would change his ability to work.
“It’s definitely going to deliver more opportunity.”
She asked how his health felt.
“It feels good knowing I’m not one bite away. One mishap away. From having dental pain.”
She asked what would have happened if Mint for More had not been there.
“I would have just waited until all of my teeth fell out and just left it like that. I had no other options.”
And then she asked what he would say if he were standing in front of one of the donors who made his treatment possible.
“I would say thank you. You may not see it every day, but you’ve saved so many people’s lives by doing one small act of kindness.”
That is the entire model in his words.
The dignity part
A lot of patients walk in expecting the worst. Free care has a reputation. Some of them tell us, in the chair, that they were braced to be hurried in and hurried out. They were braced to feel like a number.
He told us afterward:
“I just love this place. It’s professional, but not stuffy. More open feeling.”
And:
“I love it here. I refer you guys to everybody. Even if they have insurance, I’m like, come here.”
That last sentence is one we hear often. It is also one of the reasons we run Mint for More the way we do. Patients who feel respected refer their neighbors to the partner organizations who refer them to us. The trust compounds.
How you can help
Donate. Stories like this one happen because of donors who believe in the model. Your gift goes further here. Last year, less than $70,000 in grants and donations supported more than $1 million in dental care delivered, because Mint Dental Care contributes the clinical infrastructure, the staff time, and the supplies. Give to Mint for More
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Thanks for reading. There are more stories like his coming soon.
— The Mint for More Team Bentonville, AR · A 501(c)(3) nonprofit · Powered by Mint Dental Care