Commitment to the Community
Growing Smiles in Floral Vale is committed to the community in many ways. Since the office’s inception over 20 years ago, Growing Smiles in Floral Vale has sponsored Tooth Buddy Tales, a professional educational puppet show enjoyed by thousands of children throughout Bucks County, PA, and Mercer County, NJ.
Growing Smiles Foundation
Dr. Bari Levine is the founder and CEO of the dental non-profit organization, the Growing Smiles Foundation. She started the Foundation with her family while she was in dental school to provide free, comprehensive dental care for underserved children in Peru. The team includes her mother, Dr. Sheryl Radin; her brother, Dr. Ross Levine; her father, Dr. Robert Levine; and local dental students and faculty from around Philadelphia.
In 2012, Dr. Bari first traveled to an orphanage in Peru with Temple University medical students. While there, she immediately noticed the need for oral health education and care among the children and had a strong desire to return. In 2013, Dr. Bari assembled a small team, including Dr. Radin and three other dental students, to travel back to the orphanage to study, diagnose, and document the oral health status of the children at La Sagrada Familia orphanage.
For the next two years, her team returned to the orphanage annually to provide comprehensive oral health care and education. They found through their follow-up visits and research that their brief oral health intervention had caused a positive change in the children’s long-term oral health.
Annual Missions and Partnerships
The Growing Smiles Foundation has returned to Peru every year since 2012! Their team also partners with a local dental school in Lima, the Peruvian University of Applied Sciences (UPC), to provide sustainability and follow-up care.
The Growing Smiles Foundation team works hand-in-hand with UPC while in Peru and refers patients to UPC for follow-up dental care. This project also promotes the interaction of dental students and faculty members from the United States and Peru.
Achievements and Expansion
To date, together, the Foundation and UPC have provided over $600,000 in free dental care to children in need! Dr. Bari is currently replicating her program for high-risk children in Philadelphia schools. For more information, visit their website at Growing Smiles Foundation.
