Smile Pretty: 8th annual Keep Veterans Smiling Day

SHERMAN, Texas (KXII) - Tuesday marked the 8th annual Keep Veterans Smiling Day at Dr. Sam’s Premiere Dentistry in Sherman.

“You know the thing about it is, free isn’t free, some paid dearly for our freedom so this is our way of giving back to them,” Dr. Sam, Owner of Dr. Sam’s Premiere Dentistry said.

Veterans from all over Texoma came out to to Dr. Sam’s Premiere Dentistry in Sherman Tuesday morning to get a free teeth cleaning, filling or extraction.

“How are you feeling after getting your teeth cleaned? Oh, a whole lot better,” Charles Steve Harvey, an Air Force Veteran said.

Dr. Sam said each year they see about 85 Veterans and that number continues to grow, with some Veterans lining up hours beforehand.

“I’ll need to get here early so I got here around 4:30 in the morning,” Melissa Bilbrey, a Navy Veteran said. “I didn’t know if I was covered by VA so I thought this is perfect to get any fillings if I needed or anything like that.”

Over the years, the Keep Veterans Smiling Foundation has served more than 600 Veterans.

With the Keep Veterans Smiling Organization, they’re also able to give extended dentist service to one to two veterans a year.

“The extractions are to help the veterans in pain, there is a pretty bad statistic that you know there’s veterans who take their life so if they’re taking their life cause they’re in pain and they don’t see any hope and they’re out of money, we’re hoping if we can contribute to keep that from happening today by helping them get out of pain then we served our need today,” Dr. Sam said.

“I really appreciate it, I really do, I’ve never had this done before,” Harvey said.

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