Every year, Scripps Middle School finds a family to ‘adopt? for the holidays.
The requests of the students they seek to help typically involve some type of trendy technology. This year, however, they got a new one: Dental work.
The school raised around $1,500 to help one of their own, a Scripps eighth- grader, who is homeless, and just wanted to have her teeth cleaned.
As a result of this request, a few Scripps teachers said they would call their various dentists and see if they could help.
They ended up calling the same dentist, Dr. Keith Allain, of Lake Orion Family Dentistry, located in the Bald Mountain Regional Medical Complex on M-24.
When Allain met the student and realized what he was dealing with, he knew a simple cleaning just wouldn’t be enough.
‘When we saw what we saw, we just said, ‘we’ve got to help this kid out,?? he said.
‘A lot of her back teeth were infected,? Allain said. ‘Her front four teeth were badly decayed.?
So Allain and his office scheduled a treatment for May, and worked for over five hours on the girl’s teeth. They did more work at an appointment in June, and plan to do even more come this fall.
‘There was just barely a shell of teeth,? Allain said. ‘From the gum line up, we basically rebuilt the teeth.?
Allain estimated that the work done so far is somewhere in the neighborhood of $14,000-15,000.
‘I covered this all. I paid my employees to work,? Allain said. ‘The only thing I had help with was from my dental lab, which donated the porcelain crowns.?
Allain said those four crowns, donated by Phil and Ken Ramsey of Ramsey Dental Ceramics, were close to $1,000 in value.
‘It was a cool case,? he said. ‘We do a lot of this stuff.?
Allain and his office manager Lisa Allain noted that their office helps out with things like the Lake Orion fireworks, the Orion Art Center, and the Senior All-Night Party at Lake Orion High School. It’s something they see as an obligation that comes with their success.
‘The nice thing is that we’re a successful practice, and we can afford to do this kind of stuff,? Allain said.
He added that he doesn’t take on pro-bono work for the recognition, but rather to make a difference in someone’s life.
‘The reason we did it is because sometimes people are down and out, and need some help,? he said.
He hopes that the new dental work will help the girl as she makes her transition to the high school level.
‘Everybody forgets how hard it is to be in school,? he said.
Shea Miller, one of the girl’s teachers at Scripps said there has already been a noted difference in the student’s confidence.
‘These are really fancy restorations,? Allain said, noting that the process involved a 3-D scanning process, that involved help from New York, and the generous but hard work of the Ramseys.
‘It’s nice that the people at the school thought about us,? he added.
‘We’ve had a lot of positive feedback from the community,? Lisa Allain said.
Lake Orion Family Dentistry is located in Suite 200 of the Bald Mountain Regional Medical Complex, at 1375 S. Lapeer Road.
For more information about the practice, please visit them online at lkorionfamdent.com.