Last week, TeamSmile, a Kansas-based nonprofit that provides free dental services for children across the country, set up shop at PNC Park. Roughly 250 students from schools across Pittsburgh received preventative and restorative dental care from local dentists who volunteered their time. More than 100 local volunteers also worked the event.
Pittsburgh was the most recent stop for TeamSmile, which has 35 events scheduled this year. According to executive director John McCarthy, that means the nonprofit will have served roughly 6,000 kids throughout 2025.
Team Smile began in Kansas City in 2007 when Dr. Bill Bush learned about the tragic passing of 12-year-old Deamonte Driver. For Driver, an untreated toothache evolved into a fatal infection that spread to his brain. The cost of seeing a dentist deterred his single, working mother from seeking care that could have saved his life.
“[Bush] said, how does this happen in America? We're supposed to be the richest country in the world. [Driver] needed a simple extraction. He would have been fine,” McCarthy said. “He starts thinking about what he can do in his own community to make a difference? What's the major fabric of every major community in America?”
For Bush, sports was the key connection.
After speaking with the Kansas City Chiefs, Bush secured Arrowhead Stadium for what would be the first TeamSmile program. He then gathered his dental colleagues and rallied for equipment and monetary donations.
“The Chiefs share a parking lot with the Kansas City Royals; people heard about it with the Royals, [and] said, ‘Okay, that's pretty cool. Can you come do that here?’” McCarthy said. “So one programming became two, two became four.”
TeamSmile partners with local amateaur and professional sports teams, borrowing their facilities to hold events in cities across the country.
At each event, children begin with paperwork and a pre-rinse treatment before being escorted to their examination, followed by x-rays. Based on what’s found, each kid either receives preventative care or treatment, such as getting a cavity filled or a tooth extracted.
Cartoons, a live DJ, mascots and facepaint distract children as they wait to be seen by a dentist. Meanwhile, volunteers scurry about, sanitizing and preparing equipment. It’s a well-oiled machine. McCarthy said this efficiency is essential for the nonprofit to provide the extent of care they do.
Dawn Gordon, the principal of Pittsburgh King PreK-8, stressed the importance of dental health ahead of the school’s attendance at the Team Smile event.
“Over 90% of our students here need some type of dental care whether that's a cleaning, whether that is a root canal,” Gordon said. “When we have dental issues, it can lead to so many other health issues. We have a lot of kids who come to school and complain of toothaches and earaches — that could be the root cause of why they are feeling that.”
Following their appointment, TeamSmile matches each child with a local dentist, their new “home dentist,” who pledges to provide ongoing appointments either through Medicaid or free of charge, every six months until the child turns 18. The program, the Dental Home Project, ensures that dental care can remain accessible after the nonprofit departs, and is funded by the insurance company DentaQuest.
“We heard every story in the book why that wouldn't work: transportation for those kids to a dentist afterwards, parents working two and three jobs not having time to get them to a dentist, apathy, sadly, from the parents or guardians,” McCarthy said about the Dental Home Project. “But, I'm proud and thrilled to say we've now connected over 4,000 children with a dentist.”
