Entering Mid-City Nazarene Church in City Heights from its side entrance, a visitor walks up a narrow staircase. At the top, the visitor may be surprised by what is found \u2014 a bustling and brightly lit multi-room dental office named Cura Smiles, complete with four dental chairs, equipment and supplies.<\/p>\n
It is not a typical dental office. In 2024, alone, there were more than 1,500 dental procedures, valued at over $400,000, performed- all without charge.<\/p>\n
Opened in 2019, Cura Smiles is the brainchild of Del Mar dentist Thomas Fitzpatrick. \u201cThe idea behind Cura Smiles is simply to serve people with limited or no access to dental care,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Serving others has always been important to Fitzpatrick.<\/p>\n
He was born in 1978 and raised in Redding. His parents were active in the Nazarene Church and instilled in their four children the church\u2019s tenet of service to others.\u201cWe believe that to serve God in this way is an expression of our love for Him,\u201d Fitzpatrick said.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy parents instilled it by example. They worked with refugees from Laos and Thailand and helped start a Mien Nazarene Church in Redding. Growing up, my family was always involved with their weddings and celebrations and my mom would teach them English.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Mien are an ethnic minority people from southeast Asia, many of whom fled to the U.S. after the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n
Following his parents\u2019 example, during high school Fitzpatrick traveled to El Salvador with a church group to assist a volunteer medical team.<\/p>\n
While in dental school, he joined volunteer dental teams traveling to Mexico, Sri Lanka and Nicaragua. After graduating in 2006 and opening a private dental practice in Del Mar, he continued volunteering for eight years with annual trips to Nicaragua.<\/p>\n
In 2014, after getting married, he focused his volunteer service efforts on San Diego. \u201cI saw a need of underserved people in our own backyard,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Working with the Health Promotions Center run by Point Loma Nazarene College\u2019s nursing program, Fitzpatrick and four other dentists offered free services during a multi-day Festival of Health held at Mid-City Nazarene Church in 2015 and, again, in 2016.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat led me to conclude there was a need for more regular dental services,\u201d he said. \u201cSo, I talked with the pastors and suggested using space in the church to create a dental office. They were very positive and offered the space.<\/p>\n
\u201cI began the process of creating a nonprofit and solicited an informal board of directors consisting of two dentists, an attorney, accountant and dental supply company representative.\u201d<\/p>\n
The nonprofit, Cura Smiles, was formed in 2017 with Fitzpatrick as executive director.<\/p>\n
He oversaw reconfiguring the space from storage and utility rooms to an operating dental office and acquisition of donated equipment, including four dental chairs. Initial funding was raised primarily from dentists and dental equipment suppliers.<\/p>\n
After its opening, Cura Smiles experienced steady growth over the years interrupted only by COVID-19. Today it is a prominent free dental clinic staffed by volunteer dentists and assistants. The volume of patients has increased to the point that Cura Smiles is considering expansion.<\/p>\n
Fitzpatrick, who lives in Bay Park with his wife Tara and their two young children, said proper dental care is important for everyone. The Cura Smiles website explains, \u201cWithout access to proper oral care many can experience severe dental decay, causing pain, discomfort, disfigurement, acute and chronic infections, eating and sleeping disruptions, and more.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Fitzpatrick and others, bringing dental care to those in need delivers more than medical benefits. It has emotional benefits for the recipient and personal satisfaction for the provider.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s truly amazing the transformation a smile can provide,\u201d Fitzpatrick said. \u201cIt generates confidence and new hope. It can help get jobs and help with relationships.\u201d\u201cAfter one of our patients got her new dentures, her little daughter looked up and said, \u2018Mommy, you are so beautiful.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThat brought tears to everyone\u2019s eyes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cura Smiles receives many notes expressing appreciation. One note stated simply, \u201cThank you doctor for giving me my self-esteem back.\u201d<\/p>\n
About this series<\/p>\n
Goldsmith is a Union-Tribune contributing columnist.<\/p>\n
We welcome reader suggestions of people who have done something extraordinary or otherwise educational, inspiring or interesting and who have not received much previous media. Please send suggestions to Jan Goldsmith at\u00a0jgsandiego@yahoo.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Entering Mid-City Nazarene Church in City Heights from its side entrance, a visitor walks up a narrow staircase.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[181,23,100,592,74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-116614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-latest-headlines","9":"tag-local-news","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-people","12":"tag-san-diego","13":"tag-san-diego-headlines","14":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}