The Santa Smiles campaign has exceeded expectations, with a significant number of people seeking dental assistance. Drs. Tanner Townsend and Josh Muir discussed the emotional impact of the responses, highlighting stories of individuals and families struggling with dental issues. They shared moving stories, including a woman nominating herself for a better smile after a difficult childhood, a person overcoming addiction, and a single mom dealing with dental problems due to an eating disorder. The campaign aims to help 50 people, but the overwhelming demand requires patience. The doctors emphasized the importance of smiles in personal and family life and expressed gratitude for the community's support.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 0:05 Welcome back to the Smile Reconstruction Podcast, and today, we are kind of giving everyone an update on the Santa Smiles Campaign. So Dr. Muir, Santa smiles has actually gone much better than we both have anticipated. Tell us a little bit about some of the response we’ve gotten so far from Santa Smiles.

Dr. Josh Muir 0:23 Yeah, so this has been incredible. We never in our wildest dreams imagined we would have this many people reach out for the program. It’s definitely, it’s definitely a lot to go through, and we have more coming in every day. We have a huge stack. And so really, what I what I have to say is that it’s just a tremendous blessing to be able to help people, and it just shows how many people are out there not knowing what to do and needing help. You know, being in that position of either not being able to afford treatment or not being able to know how to make the next step pretty eye opening.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 1:03 Yeah, it’s really eye opening to see people struggle with their teeth. It actually has helped me realize how many people just all around in our community are having a hard time with their teeth, and we may not even notice it, or their family and friends may only know that they’re having a hard time. And as we’ve read through a lot of these that it’s it’s interesting to see how, like I had mentioned, family and friends really want this for their family member to help them get their smile back and be able to enjoy their food.

Dr. Josh Muir 1:35 Yeah, a lot of times I see people, if they’re typically saying, hey, you know, my mom has always cared for everyone else, and now it’s time that we want to do something for her. Can you help us do this for her? We’ve had some that say, Hey, you know, my husband is in his final stages of life. He has cancer. He’s lost his his teeth. Would you help us get him a smile at least for the end of his life, so he can smile and have his grandchildren remember that. I mean, just, just some heart wrenching stuff. This is, this is pretty difficult to be honest.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 2:13 Yeah, it’s really difficult, and it’s going to be kind of hard to to cipher through some of these, because we have so many of who is the most deserving of this. So

Dr. Josh Muir 2:22 Yeah,

Dr. Tanner Townsend 2:22 It’ll be great to kind of go through that, but we’d like to share and change the names, of course, of a few of these, of just some of the highlights, of some of the things that we’re hearing like you had mentioned. So what was one of the ones that you felt like that touched you, Dr. Muir?

Dr. Josh Muir 2:38 Yeah, and there are so many, because everyone, you know, everyone has their story. And you know, we don’t like focusing on, hey, here’s the mistakes I made in my life that led me down this path. Here I am today. But you know, we all have a story, and so reading some of these stories truly, it’s, it’s, it’s pretty inspirational. But, you know, here’s someone that she said, I’m nominating myself for a better smile. To be honest, I never do anything for myself, so this is extremely hard for me. My story is no better than the next. The only difference is, this is my story, and she goes on to tell how she was young. When she was young, her parents couldn’t afford to take her or her siblings to the dentist, and so when they did go, they were seen by a dentist that only did work on horses, so they called him the horse dentist. Jude goes on to say, I also made sure that my kids had regular dentist appointments, put them through braces, made sure that they had beautiful teeth, as I wish my parents had done for me as a child, I feel like an old lady. I envy people that have all their teeth, and wish I could be like them. I know that this is all my fault, and I have just learned to accept this. I don’t expect anything for free. Any help would be appreciated. So there’s someone that you know just a regular life story where, you know, a lot of us come from different backgrounds and and you make priorities and some things fall through the cracks. And you know, great story though, that she’s wanted the situation for her children to be better than her own. And, pretty commendable that way. What about you? What have you found?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 4:24 Kind of a similar one that that you had. This is an individual that said, my beautiful, huge smile has been gone for a while now. They’re in their 40s, and they used to take great care of their teeth, and then they had some addiction issues, and it sounds like they’ve done an excellent job, kind of turning things around in the last year, and they’ve got a great job, and they work with individuals in a in a hospital setting, and they love helping people. But she says, I feel alive again since going back to work. I’m one who makes people laugh, and I like to laugh as well. My teeth hinder me now. Know, if chosen, I promise to take good care of them and to smile huge so others can smile back. Smiles are contagious. How true that statement is, that smiles are contagious, and for having seen or hearing the story of someone that’s kind of gone through a lot, and they realized they needed to change, and they overcome that challenge and change for the better, and realizing, Hey, I’ve got another step to kind of put things all back together. And the next step is the teeth.

Dr. Josh Muir 5:26 And it’s a big deal. And even in our office, we see a lot of patients that have been through certain addictions with that as they overcome that addiction, it’s hard to forgive themselves, because they have that constant reminder of who they were, not who they are, and it’s also hard for society to not judge people for who they appear to be, and it’s hard to tell who people really are. But when you know, we all have a past, we all have a story, yeah, and so it’s hard to get a job when you can’t smile, unless you’re going to be in the back. You know, so very real things. Yeah, do you have another one that you want to share? Yeah, I have a couple here. You know. One is, I would like to nominate my cousin. And it goes on to say how this person essentially lost multiple people in their life and took him down this path of just going through so many difficulties. Now this person lives alone, would probably not seek help with his own teeth, but I think it would be life changing for him, just a concerned relative that is trying to help someone who’s been through so much this other one, I am a 40 something year old single mom of five. Many years ago, I went to treatment for a lifelong eating disorder. One of the side effects of my eating disorder was severe tooth decay, and that’s one of those things that we see drug use, eating disorders, overdosing on different types of medications, even if they’re for good reasons, even people that lift a lot as part of their work, you know, they grind down and break teeth and all of those things. So I also have some chronic health conditions as a result of my eating disorder that probably added to the dental issues, and she goes on to say, later, I try to hide my mouth as much as possible. I don’t enjoy going out into public anymore because it is so embarrassing. But I have three daughters who would like to be out enjoying their lives, and as the mother, she’s their ticket to ride. And if she doesn’t feel secure being out, then she’s keeping her kids from from enjoying and socializing. And, you know, having those important parts of growing up. So,

Dr. Tanner Townsend 7:52 Wow.

Dr. Josh Muir 7:52 I mean, letter after letter after letter, pretty amazing. What other ones have you come across?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 7:59 And you kind of maybe even mentioned part of this story when you were talking earlier, but I love this one, and this individual wanted to nominate her husband who got diagnosed with cancer in September. She just mentioned that he’s in need of a replacement of new dentures right now, we’re just having a hard time. She goes on to say, we don’t know how long my husband’s going to be around, but I’d love to give him his smile back while he’s around, and just how touching that is and how powerful a smile is, to have it be for the grandkids, or just to die with teeth whenever that is. And I loved how your story like it just shows that if the mom doesn’t feel comfortable driving around town with her kids because of her teeth, are going to different events that her kids want to go to. It’s not the teeth aren’t just helping her, it’s helping the whole family.

Dr. Josh Muir 8:48 Yeah, and often we hear about, you know, I just want my kids to be able to be proud of me,

Dr. Tanner Townsend 8:57 Yeah,

Dr. Josh Muir 8:58 And and not have to hide me from their friends. I mean, there’s so much here. I suspect we’ll have hundreds to go through as the days continue and we get more of these letters coming in and more videos coming in, and so this will be really difficult. You know, if I could say one thing to everybody, it would be just guys. We’re gonna do the best we can to help as many people as we can, but there is a lot of need.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 9:26 Yeah

Dr. Josh Muir 9:27 So,

Dr. Tanner Townsend 9:28 And I think is, as we go through these please be patient with us. There are a lot to go through, and we want, like we said, to help as many as we can. Our goal is 50. Just be patient with us as we’re reaching out to try to get these individuals in and scheduled that it’s going to take us a little bit of time to get that all on the schedule and get going with that. And it’s going to go into the new year, there’s some pretty amazing people with some amazing stories,

Dr. Josh Muir 9:55 Yeah, as I look at the program, and, you know, as we started the Santa Smiles Campaign, we had some goals. Yes, we wanted to help people. We wanted to give back to the community. We wanted to put smiles on people’s faces. And we also wanted to have a story to tell, you know. And I keep going back to that, everyone has a story, but how awesome to be part of that happy ending, you know. But I think we’ve we’re meeting every goal and then some. So I think this is something that we’ll have to revisit every year, and hopefully it’ll get better and better as time goes on.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 10:33 Yeah. So really excited to see where it goes and help change some people’s lives.

Dr. Josh Muir 10:37 Grateful we’re doing it.

b So that is it for today’s episode of the Smile Reconstruction Podcast. We’re excited to see where Santa Smiles continues to go as we have a few more weeks of that. We will catch you all later.

Dr. Josh Muir 10:50 Thanks, everyone.