{"id":861223,"date":"2026-09-26T10:00:16","date_gmt":"2026-09-26T10:00:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861223\/"},"modified":"2026-09-26T10:00:16","modified_gmt":"2026-09-26T10:00:16","slug":"little-rock-clinic-gifts-nearly-1m-total-with-annual-free-dental-day-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/861223\/","title":{"rendered":"Little Rock clinic gifts nearly $1M total with annual free Dental Day event"},"content":{"rendered":"

Arkansas Family Dental hosted its annual free Dental Day event on Friday morning, providing teeth cleanings, extractions, and cavity fillings.<\/p>\n

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. \u2014 Despite decades of research supporting the connection between dental hygiene and overall health, many Arkansans shy away from the dentist.<\/p>\n

“That’s why I don’t have my teeth cleaned, because last time I had my teeth cleaned, I had a needle stuck in my… Yeah, it was just a whole bunch that was going on in my mouth,” described Tyler Mitchell.<\/p>\n


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Fear, coupled with rising living costs, prevents many people from getting the care they need.\u00a0<\/p>\n

However, one dental clinic in Little Rock is doing what it can to help.<\/p>\n

Arkansas Family Dental hosted its annual Dental Day on Friday morning, providing free teeth cleanings, extractions and cavity fillings.<\/p>\n

The services were open to the public, not just current clients, with some attendees getting in line as early as 8:00 p.m. the night before.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t had my teeth cleaned in a while, so this was a great experience,” Mitchell said after traveling from Jonesboro for the service. “They got me in, got me real comfortable.”<\/p>\n

Clinic leaders said they gave away more than $200,000 worth of free dental care during last year’s Dental Day.<\/p>\n

This year, they hope to beat that amount.<\/p>\n

“Arkansas ranks at the bottom of the funnel when it comes to oral health in this country, and a lot of people are not insured,” Richard Robinson, a dental hygienist at Arkansas Family Dental, said. “This is important not only to bring to Little Rock, but bring to the entire state.”<\/p>\n

Along with dental care, the event included free coffee and snacks donated by Starbucks Central Arkansas, a DJ with games and a barber.<\/p>\n

“Patients are coming out and sitting here for a long period of time,” Robinson said. “We just want to make sure that we’re providing extra additions for them while they’re having a long wait.”<\/p>\n

The event was made possible with the help of private donors and more than 80 volunteers, including students from the UAMS Dental Hygiene School.<\/p>\n

Clinic leaders said that since the event started in 2018, they’ve provided nearly $1 million in free dental care.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Arkansas Family Dental hosted its annual free Dental Day event on Friday morning, providing teeth cleanings, extractions, and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":861224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-861223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=861223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/861223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/861224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=861223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=861223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=861223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}