About
SIYA KALRA
Founder - Help A Child Smile
'Help A Child Smile' was founded by Siya in high school. The death of her grandmother from oral cancer in 2015 and the US Senate Committee Report in 2012 describing "The Dental Crisis in America", spurred her to take action to bring down the high incidence of dental disease and oral cancer and raise awareness of early detection and prevention. The goal of Help a Child Smile is to bridge oral healthcare inequalities that cause higher disease rates in low-income, rural, and marginalized communities.
Through oral health seminars for children in schools, distribution of educational brochures and dental hygiene supplies, and an expanding group of volunteers and dental professionals providing free care, Help A Child Smile has created a network in underserved counties of Georgia, the southside of Chicago, an urban low-income area, and the slum districts of Delhi, India, to create healthier communities.
Mission
Help the Child Smile is dedicated to raising awareness of dental disease and oral cancer and bridging oral healthcare inequalities in low-income, rural, and underserved areas. We believe that we must strive to bring equitable healthcare to marginalized communities and enable progress in society by increasing access to affordable care.
Pediatric Dental Disease
Pediatric dental disease affects 1 in 5 children and deteriorates their quality of life, impairs development, and can lead to malnutrition, pain, infection, problems speaking, and future risk of heart disease, diabetes, and dementia. Children who receive regular dental care and develop good habits early in life have better lifelong oral health and fewer problems.
Oral Cancer
Oral cancer ranks among the top 10 cancers in the world and includes cancer of the mouth, tongue, tonsils, and throat cancer. Oral cancer has been gradually increasing and the increase is expected to continue as there is no national screening protocol, the risk factors continue to be relatively unchanged, and there is lack of public awareness that regular screenings and early detection can save lives and lower the incidence.
The US Surgeon General describes dental disease as a silent epidemic
It is the most prevalent and chronic unmet healthcare need. Over 47 million people in the US live in places where it is difficult to access dental care and 17 million children received no care at all. There were over 830,000 visits to emergency rooms across the country for preventable dental conditions, with over 51 million lost school hours and 164 million work hours.
World-wide, the statistics are much grimmer. Oral diseases affect half of the world’s population - 3.58 billion people - and 30% of people over 65 have no remaining teeth. The oral health care demands are beyond the capacities of the health care systems in low and middle-income countries. And in the US, nearly 9,500 new dental providers are needed to meet the country’s current oral health needs.
The disparity between the rich and the poor is growing in dental disease. Low-income, rural, and marginalized communities suffer disproportionately and have 5 times higher incidence of problems.
Early Detection of Oral Cancer
Saves Lives
Oral cancer is among the leading cancers of the world and in Asian-Pacific countries, the incidence is within the top 3 of all cancers.
Over 52,000 people in the US are diagnosed annually. It causes over 9,750 deaths, killing roughly 1 person per hour, 24 hours per day. Of the survivors, only half will be alive in 5 years. Worldwide the problem is greater, with over 530,000 new cases detected annually and the incidence slowly increasing.
Oral cancer is particularly dangerous because in its early stages it is painless and goes unnoticed. Its mortality rate is high due to lack of awareness of risk factors and preventative screenings and the cancer being routinely discovered late in its development.
Dental disease is the most common chronic disease in the world. It affects nearly half the world's population, almost 3.5 billion people.
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Over 215 million school and work hours are lost annually due to oral infections and pain. The cost to society from loss of productivity is estimated to be $144 billion per year.
