NEW PORT RICHEY, FLA.- — A Tampa Bay non-profit provides charitable dental care to under-served veterans and people who are struggling financially.
Jennifer Seybold served in the U.S. Army and received free dental care at the clinic in New Port Richey.
"It's been a long time coming. It's hard to talk and I'm very emotional because I have wanted this done," said Seybold.
SmileFaith Foundation was founded in 2009.
Smiles 4 Tampa Bay provides dental services for individuals who otherwise cannot afford private insurance or care. The clinic is income-based and operates on a sliding scale for its services.
"We take are of veterans and folks that are struggling financially. We take care of folks that just want to find a good quality dental office so we're open for everybody in the Tampa Bay area and beyond," said Dr. Michael O'Carroll, Director of Ministries with SmileFaith Foundation.
"We're in Pasco County where there's about 50,000 veterans. We know there's about 300,000 veterans in the Tampa Bay area and most of those veterans do not have dental benefits so we wanted to find a way to help them."
Dr. Diana Bronstein said patients are extremely grateful for the dental care they received.
"Our patients usually present with difficulties in chewing and eating as well as aesthetically how they look. A lot of them when they smile, they cannot get a job because they're either missing teeth or rotten. There is a lot of infection," said Dr. Bronsetin.
"They have nowhere to go. They have nowhere to go so if we don’t do it, nobody will do it."
To learn more about SmileFaith Foundation visit: https://smilefaith.org or call 727-807-7958.
