Donated Dental Services through the National Foundation of Dentistry for the Handicapped

The National Foundation of Dentistry for the Handicapped (NFDH); a charitable affiliate of the American Dental Association; is committed, through collaboration, to arranging comprehensive dental treatment and long-term preventive services to needy disabled, elderly or medically compromised individuals through a national network of direct service programs.

Louisiana participates in the Donated Dental Services (DDS) program as a collaborative, direct way that the dental profession reaches out to individuals with special needs. Click here for the most recent Super Smiles newsletter listing Louisiana dental participants and the numbers of people treated.

Because of the extraordinary compassion of over 2,600 dental laboratories and 12,000 dentists across the country, DDS tends to the essential and comprehensive dental care needs of our nation’s most vulnerable people; disabled, elderly or medically-compromised individuals who cannot afford necessary treatment nor get public aid.  DDS patients have slipped through the cracks of Medicaid and Medicare programs with nowhere else to turn.  

Participation could not be easier.  Dentists and labs take care of the patients, DDS does everything else; no headaches, no red tape.  A DDS coordinator is the liaison between the patient, the labs and the dentists, answering any and all questions, assisting the patient, the lab and the dentist with anything and everything.  The goal of DDS is to return patients to good oral health, enabling them to reach an affordable maintenance level.

If you would like to volunteer for the progam, go to www.nfdh.org or call the Louisiana DDS coordinator Mary Bell at (800) 946-6016. Patients interested in applying for the program should also contact Bell.