CHARLOTTE: As part of its ongoing global partnership with Smile Train to help children with clefts, Dentsply Sirona provided a new equipment donation and championed a series of fundraising activities to support communities in need access high-quality cleft care. Dentsply Sirona’s actions were recognized through Newsweek’s rankings of America’s Most Responsible Companies of 2023.
Following a successful first year of collaboration – with more than 730 cleft surgeries funded – Dentsply Sirona and Smile Train have continued their efforts to provide care for children with clefts through a series of fundraising activities in the second half of 2022.
Globally, 1 in 700 babies are born with a cleft lip and/or palate. Accessing essential treatment for cleft care can be challenging for many families – particularly in low-income countries. The collaboration between Dentsply Sirona and Smile Train is designed to help advance treatment standards and best-practice digital cleft care globally by ensuring that local dental professionals have access to both cutting-edge technology and high quality clinical education and training.
Dentsply Sirona’s support of Smile Train, along with other initiatives in its BEYOND sustainability program, has seen the company named as one of America’s 500 Most Responsible Companies by Newsweek – coming in at number 35 in the Health & Life Sciences category. Helping cover the costs of life-changing cleft surgery, the first fundraiser was launched at DS World 2022, which took place September 2022, in Las Vegas, Nevada. Attendees were invited to visit the BEYOND booth to learn more about the partnership between Smile Train and Dentsply Sirona and donate in support of children with clefts.
The momentum continued to World Smile Day in October, when the general public was encouraged to make donations through a social media fundraising campaign leading up to Smile Train’s Giving Tuesday campaign on November 29. For all three activities, Dentsply Sirona matched every US $1 donated (up to US $200,000 in total).
Dentsply Sirona employees also participated in their own fundraiser, with the company donating US $25 for every dental check-up booked between October and November – encouraging employees to take care of their own oral health while raising a total of US $67,700. The company strengthened these efforts with a cash donation of US$ 160,000 which, in conjunction with the product donations made to Smile Train partner treatment centers, brought the total donations since the start of Dentsply Sirona’s partnership with Smile Train in September 2021 to over US $1 million
“Recently, we have seen many examples of the amazing outcomes that can be achieved when our industry unites,” said Cherée Johnson, SVP, Chief Legal Officer, and Chair of the Sustainability Committee at Dentsply Sirona. “We are very proud of the way our community rallied around these fundraisers for Smile Train and were pleased to be able to support their important work with our own donations. We look forward to continuing our partnership in 2023 and helping provide even more children with the healthy smiles they deserve.”
