For the second year, a Transcona dental practice marked National Oral Health Month by putting smiles on Winnipeggers’ faces.

Odyssey Dental Care teamed up with United Way on Saturday to provide 40 refugees and newcomers to Winnipeg a free check-up, cleaning and oral health kit in partnership with the Give Back, Smile Back program.

“Good dental health is exceedingly important,” said Dr. Jerry Baluta. “April is Dental Health Month so that’s why we try to do it (this month). Dental health is very important. Many studies have shown links between our dental health and our general health so everything we can do to help with our dental health will help with our general health as well.”

The dentists saw about 35 patients last year and seemed easily on their way to exceeding that number Saturday morning.

“Most of the patients that we’ve seen so far today are patients who haven’t seen anybody since they’ve been to the country or they haven’t seen anybody for a long time,” said Baluta. “We’re just trying to generally take care of the biggest need that we can see, getting them out of pain and doing whatever we can. Basically we’re trying to allocate an hour for each person. Some take a little more, some take a little less and we’re just trying to get as much done as we can.”

According to a press release, Odyssey chose to partner with United Way to help relieve pressure on agency partners, where a program supported by United Way donors makes it possible to Winnipeg families living in poverty to access important dental care year round. In total, United Way supports 23 agency partners on the front lines of caring for newcomer and refugee families,

“Most of these are patients who haven’t had access to care yet and sometimes they fall through the cracks,” said Baluta. “What we’re doing is we’ve got most of our staff here today and we’re just seeing as many people as we can.”

“We are so grateful to Dr. Jerry Baluta and Odyssey Dental Care for recognizing that there is a very real human need in our city and for standing by ready to help,” said United Way Winnipeg president and CEO Connie Walker in a press release. “Together, we can welcome these families and surround them with understanding and hope as they start their journey to build a better life.”

gdawkins@postmedia.com

Twitter: @SunGlenDawkins