A smile worth showing off is what these kids are getting.

Senior Student Hygienist Nildaliz Rolon says, “Your smile is basically like you’re welcome as soon as you see someone, you smile, that’s what they look at. So obviously everybody wants to have a nice smile.”

Thanks to the staff and students at Fortis Institute in Scranton.

“It’s very important for one to make sure that the kids are getting cleanings regularly and making sure that they don’t have any cavities. Cavities are very prone to these, for this age. So it’s good when they come in, and the parents are making sure that they’re keeping up with their home care,” says Senior Student Hygienist Gabrielle Ridley.

Gabrielle Ridley is one of the several students participating in the American Dental Association Foundation’s “Give Kids a Smile” program.

Held twice a year, the event offers children ages 1 to 17 an oral health education lesson and preventive treatments, including screening exams, x-rays, and other dental dos and don’ts, under the supervision of a licensed dentist.

FORTIS Instructor Karen DeGroat says, “This is one of my favorite days. I’m sorry, I get emotional about this because there’s such a need here for, um, children to be able to have the dental hygiene experience, that it just provides such a good quality care for all of the patients who come in and their families.”

This year, 50 kids signed up for the event.

“I forget if I got an X-ray or not, but I don’t think I did. I think they just cleaned my teeth. My teeth,” says Paulina Suchecki of Pittston.

“Yeah, yeah.”

Creating a learning environment for both the kids and the hygienists in training.

Senior Student Hygienist Taylor Henry says, “As a future hygienist, it’s communicating, especially to younger generations, how important it is to take care of your teeth because it not only affects your mouth, but it also affects the rest of your body and getting kids excited and comfortable with the dentist, especially because it can be a nerve-wracking thing, is so important at a young age.”

The next “Give Kids A Smile” program will be this fall.