It is now located at the Quinte Business Development Centre with the Trenval Business Development Corporation. Gift from the Heart is a national non-profit charity that has, since 2008, provided vulnerable Canadians experiencing barriers with no-cost oral health care.
Access to oral health care has been further limited with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Trenval Executive Director Amber Darling tells Quinte News the Board of Directors unanimously supported Gift from the Heart to operate out of the Trenval offices.
“Part of being healthy employees and healthy people is having our wellness checks and oral cancer screening and preventative services. And Gift from the Heart is a Canadian charity and they now have one part-time employee and they are bringing on a part-time dental hygienist.”
“We recognize the changing local social economic environment and GFTH will allow Bay of Quinte residents access to good health and well-being in oral care,” says Darling.
In 2021 and 2022, GFTH received two decommissioned local ambulances that have been refitted to offer preventive oral healthcare services from dental hygienists.
“In 2023, GFTH will unveil our Outreach Mobile Dental Centre offering accessibility to provide our communities with urgent dental care such as extractions and fillings, filling the gap that currently exists between services offered by Public Health and Community Health Centres,” said Bev Woods, GFTH President/CEO.
Every nine minutes someone goes to an Emergency Room (ER) because of dental pain, most commonly a tooth abscess. Every three minutes someone goes to a doctor’s office because of dental problems. Physicians are not trained to deal with diseases affecting teeth and gums so they cannot provide treatment. They can only prescribe antibiotics and pain killers which does nothing to solve the problem. This costs at least $38 million annually in avoidable healthcare costs for problems that should be treated by oral healthcare professionals.
“GFTH relies on the generosity of donations. This is a true example of one community organization assisting another for the long term benefit of the community,” adds Darling.
To learn more about the GFTH charity: www.giftfromtheheart.ca
