Sonrisas Felices brings dental services and education to rural villages and schools in Nicaragua, serving 5,000+ people per year who have zero access to oral health services - a gap that catalyzes chronic disease such as diabetes, cancer, and heart disease. Our program is led by local women doctors whom we educate and partner with.
Oral health services do not exist for rural and low income people in Nicaragua, a health gap that has been proven the world over to catalyze chronic disease. This was the stated top challenge by the leadership team of our local hospital back in 2019.
Together, we co-created the first of its kind mobile dentistry project, bringing oral health services to remote villages and schools. We perform 3+ clinics per week, providing basic dental services, consultations, and dental kits, free to all Nicaraguans. Additionally, our program is led by local women dentists and staff whom we educate (through university scholarships) and partner with (women-owned private clinics), helping uplift women of low income families into meaningful employment.
Since inception in 2020 we have served 27,000+ people with oral health services. According to the Director of the hospital in San Juan del Sur, Nicaragua, "we are transforming the state of oral health in the entire municipality." This sea change will result in lower incidence of dental caries, gum disease, and downstream development of chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes. With this remarkable foundation, we now wish to expand our program to other hospitals/regions of Nicaragua.
This project has provided additional documentation in a PDF file (projdoc.pdf).
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