CLINIC | DPC, the largest network of dental clinics in Lithuania, is celebrating its tenth anniversary by continuing its social project “Every Smile Has a Story”. Today, ten lucky participants of the project take the first step towards a healthy and beautiful smile. Irma Kvedarienė, Director of the clinic network, welcomed the participants at the Meet the Participants event. “A healthy and beautiful smile gives you confidence, so I hope it will be more than just an external change. Maybe for one, it will be the beginning of a new story, full of determination and drive. For another, it will be the crowning of challenges overcome, like a gift of life for the trials experienced. The stories of the people we will give smiles to are special.
But one thing they have in common is the courage and desire to change their lives and wellbeing for the better. After all, so often we want to, we dream, but we hesitate. These people believed in their success. We are very happy to create an unexpected holiday miracle for you. The most important thing I would like to wish to the participants is to trust our doctors and the most advanced technologies. You will have an exciting journey ahead of you, and at the end of it, I’m sure you won’t want to stop smiling,” said the Director of the clinic network.
One of the project participants, Ernestas, was born without a left arm. This did not stop him from playing sports – he became a paratriathlete and Lithuanian sprint champion. Ernestas is the only athlete preparing to represent Lithuania in 2020. He is the only other athlete to represent Lithuania at the Tokyo Paralympic Games in the triathlon event. Due to his busy training schedule, the athlete chasing his dream gave up his job.
Although Ernest’s physical strength would be enough to take on anyone, his weak point is his teeth. From the age of 18, he began to lose teeth in his upper jaw. He currently wears a plaque and loses one tooth every year or so. CLINIC | DPC’s new smile project will be a real sprint to a new life full of confidence for the sprint champion.
Perhaps the most sensitive story is that of Ieva, whose smile was restored in Jurbarkas. A young, charming woman found out while pregnant that she had active breast cancer. Throughout her pregnancy, Ieva underwent intensive chemotherapy but managed to give birth to a healthy baby boy. But the brave and strong mother of three never stops smiling. CLINIC | DPC specialists will make sure that she can do it with a perfect smile.
Audronė, who lives in Utena, is also starting her journey towards a new smile today. “Taking part in your project would be equivalent to new wings – a new, more beautiful life”, she wrote to the project organisers. Audronė’s teeth have been very weak since childhood, weakened further by the heavy use of antibiotics, and now she finds it difficult even to chew food, her gums bleed heavily and she is ashamed to smile. She says she had been waiting 20 years for her dream to finally get her teeth fixed until CLINIC | DPC told her that Christmas would bring a new smile under the Christmas tree.
Four of his children gave a new smile to the project participant Stasys from Raseiniai. “Dad didn’t have much money for himself, he gave more to us, and his teeth were decaying and falling out, but they were not being fixed”, wrote his daughter. Now the father of four will be able to show off his beautiful smile at his eldest daughter’s wedding this summer.
“These and six other Christmas miracles would not be possible without CLINIC | DPC patients. 1% of the services provided to them went towards creating new smiles.” – says Simonas Bankauskas, founder and chief physician of the clinic network. The clinic network would also like to thank all the other contributors to the project – the portal Lrytas.lt, the implant manufacturer Nobel Biocare, the official representative of the K line clear orthodontic caps in the Baltic States, and UAB Analizė, which sells dental and medical goods.
