Dr. Jeffrey Pearson has been caring for patients at Bright Now! Dental for over 11 years! As someone who is passionate about giving back to his community, Dr. Pearson was excited to partner with the Smiles for Everyone Foundation to help host the very first Day of Giving in 2015. Further demonstrating his generosity, he has participated in our Smile Makeover program and changed the lives of low-income patients in need of extensive dental care. Throughout the years, Dr. Pearson has continued to be one of our most enthusiastic partners, volunteering his time and skills to help deliver Smiles for Everyone!
1) What made you want to become a dentist?
Dentistry is just a great blend of health care, allowing you to build a lasting relationship with your patients, artistry, and autonomy.
2) What first got you interested in donating your time to provide free dental care to those in need?
I’ve always tried to support the community and give back. We are blessed and it is important to lift those that are not as fortunate up within our community. This is what I love about the Foundation, you don’t have to travel thousands of miles to do a big outreach trip, and there is plenty of need right in our own community.
3) Describe some of the ways you’ve partnered with the Smiles for Everyone Foundation
Our market was the first to do a Day of Giving back in 2015 and we also completed a very successful day in Gresham earlier in the year. Our office has also tried to sponsor individual patients in the community throughout the year that need comprehensive work. We just completed a full mouth rehab on a patient that was seen at the Gresham Day of Giving. She came from one of the local homeless shelters and it was obvious that we couldn’t finish her work in one day. I asked her to come back to our office and we were able to do everything. She was recovering from a meth addiction and before she wouldn’t smile due to broken, black front teeth. Now she is clean, back on her feet, smiling and ready to start looking for work to support her family.
4) How does it feel to work for a company that shares your values about giving back?
This is one the greatest things about working in this environment. The size and network of people and resources that we have in our organization allows us to do so much more than say a solo practice.
5) What are some of the risks associated with neglecting dental care?
Of course there are the overall health considerations for dental neglect. For most of the Foundation patients we see, these people get into a cycle of not being able to keep up with their care due to cost. Often an inexpensive, routine procedure is not completed due to finances and then this leads to a bigger issue which causes pain, infection, and loss of the tooth. This just snowballs and then before you know it, you have a young person that is looking at significant work or a mouth that prevents them from functioning due to pain/infection. If they are missing teeth, this also leads to the social stigma of a bad smile. They sometimes don’t have the confidence to even smile and can affect them from getting a job.
6) What would you tell others to inspire them to give back to their communities as well?
I think the biggest lesson our team has learned while working with the Foundation is that even though we are helping others and they are the ones on the receiving end, at the end of the day you end up having more joy from helping others and it builds a great sense of comradery within the office.
We extend our sincere gratitude to Dr. Jeffrey Pearson for his dedication to helping others and delivering Smiles for those in need!