To help Bay Oral Surgery continue with their mission to give back to the community, we developed the Salute To Smiles Program in the fall of 2015 as a way to connect area dentists with military backgrounds and local veterans in order to provide much needed dental procedures. The inspiration for this program came from Bay Oral Surgery’s three ex-military oral surgeons, Dr. David LeMoine, Dr. Bradley Koch and Dr. Charles Ellis.

After coordinating and matching patients with local dentists and Bay Oral surgeons, it was time for the kick off party where the all the participating veterans, dentists and surgeons got a chance to meet each other and share their stories before their care plans started in December 2015.

As of today, the restorative portion of each patient’s care plan is nearly complete. All the veterans are extremely thankful for the dental care they received, and we are in the initial planning stages for Salute to Smiles 2016!

We reached out to Stacy Engebretson at NBC26 because we knew this powerful story had to be shared right away. She interviewed patient Michael Schuenke, Dr. David LeMoine and Bay Oral Surgery Office Manager, Katie VandeVoort to find out what Salute to Smiles meant to them personally.

The day after the story aired, Bay Oral Surgery started getting calls from veterans in need of dental care who want to be a part of Salute to Smiles in 2016. We couldn’t be more proud of Bay Oral Surgery and we are honored to be a part of such a wonderful program to help our local veterans.  Stay tuned for Salute to Smiles 2016!