Smiles Change Lives (SCL), Kansas City, Mo, a nonprofit providing orthodontic treatment for children from low-income families, has dropped its program age minimum requirement from 11 to 10 years of age.
"Our goal is to provide orthodontic treatment to as many children as possible," says Kelly Toombs, DDS (pictured), an SCL provider and National Board Member. "The typical age for a child to have their permanent teeth and be ready for treatment is age 12. However, some children get their permanent teeth earlier, so we have lowered our minimum age to 10 in order to include as many children as we can."
SCL currently has 900 immediate openings nationwide for patients. Children must be 10 to 18 years old with a family income at or below 200% of the Federal Poverty Level.
