Million-Dollar Kids’ Smiles at Discount Rate

It wasn’t your typical destination for a swarm of low-income elementary school children on a field trip: a spacious house in a quiet Inglewood neighborhood.

Inside the Tooth Fairy Cottage, some kids flocked to the microscopes--to examine the germs that thrive in dirty mouths. Others visited a bathroom with six sinks, where they learned the basics of brushing.

Finally, the children walked across the street to another building known as the Smile Store, where volunteer dentists examined their teeth. Such is the itinerary on a field trip to the two facilities that make up the Children’s Dental Center.

The nonprofit organization over the last five years has given dental care to tens of thousands of mostly South Bay-area children who don’t have public or private insurance.

The Children’s Dental Center is the former private practice of an Inglewood father-and-daughter team which she turned into a nonprofit organization to treat children who otherwise might not receive care.

James Sheets died a few years ago. But Cherilyn Sheets wanted to give something back to the community where she, her father and an uncle practiced dentistry for a combined 120 years.

“It’s a wonderful feeling,” said Sheets, “to know that something that represented so many years of work for your family has a new life that will allow it to help children and families.”

The Tooth Fairy Cottage and Smile Store have also inspired similar centers elsewhere.

Nonprofits designed after the Inglewood operation have opened in Philadelphia and Spokane, Wash., and there are plans for one in Orange County, where Sheets now practices.

In planning Kids’ Smiles in southwest Philadelphia, dentist Joseph Greenberg visited Inglewood’s center.

“I had no doubt that Cherilyn would provide quality dentistry for children,” said Greenberg. “It was also the aspect that the program would focus on the children’s self-esteem.”

The Inglewood center had a long history before it took on its present function.

The Tooth Fairy Cottage is the former residence of the Sheets family. And the Smile Store across the street is where, until the mid-1980s, “Sheets and Sheets” practiced.

When the older Sheets could not work anymore and the daughter moved her office to Newport Beach, the family entrusted the Inglewood house and practice to USC, which used it to train dentistry students. When the university planned to sell it in 1992, the Sheetses bought it back.

Initially, the Sheetses reopened it as a practice for adults. But soon, Cherilyn Sheets and Shirley Duff, the Sheetses’ longtime office manager, were pondering what else to do with the facilities.

For her part, Sheets struggled to run both the Newport Beach and Inglewood operations.

Duff had a lingering thought that maybe the practice could be reinvented to bring back children--a clientele the Sheetses had served many years before.

“I told her there were days I could just sit there at the desk and suddenly I could remember when children would come in,” said Duff. “You had the laughing, yeah, sometimes the crying,” but without them, “the office had a void.”

A week later, Sheets called Duff and they talked for two hours making plans to establish the Children’s Dental Center. The idea seemed perfect because the women also knew there were families in modest South Bay neighborhoods who can’t afford dental care.

Even now, Duff cites national and local studies that say tooth decay is an epidemic among children in poor communities.

A South Bay hospital, Duff said, performed a study recently that revealed that area children frequently show up at emergency rooms seeking treatment for severe tooth problems.

A typical day at the center finds parents bringing in children--ranging in age from 3 to teenagers--for treatment.

“It would be very hard for me to pay” a regular dentist, said Elvira Ramirez, seeking treatment for son, Santos, 14.

The children come mostly from nearby communities, such as Inglewood, Torrance, Gardena, Watts and Willowbrook. But occasionally they come from as far away as Palmdale. Duff said the families typically are low-wage workers whose employers don’t provide insurance.

For $25 a visit, children can get a variety of work that might cost hundreds or thousands of dollars elsewhere, Duff said. For complicated procedures, the center asks the family to pay a little more.

But treatment is just half the center’s focus. The field trips teach good dental habits and, judging by some handmade thank-you cards the center received, the lessons often take.

“Thank you for letting me come for free,” wrote a girl named Edith. “I’m glad you showed me more about my teeth.”

Duff and staff also visit schools, fairs and community events. They hand out free toothbrushes and perform screenings, hoping the children will come to the center for the actual work.

The work at the center is performed by one staff dentist and almost 30 private dentists from around the region who volunteer. A $1.3-million budget from, among other sources, foundation and corporate grants and individual contributions, pays for supplies, facilities and the small staff.

USC dentistry students and staff still come to the center to practice their skills. They also find satisfaction in helping the needy.

Supervising a couple of students recently, Robert Keim, director of orthodontics at USC, reflected on some of the children he has helped treat.

“Some of these kids are being teased because they have crooked teeth,” he said.

He recalled a special surprise he received recently from a former patient.

“She came in last week,” he said, “and thanked me for making her pretty enough to get married.”