Dr. Tammy Rhea DDS, a dentist at the Remsen Dental Center, donates dentistry services to the Iowa Donated Dental Services program started in 2005. The program is intended to provide people who cannot afford it free dentistry by volunteer dentists and dental laboratories across the state. [Click to enlarge]

That's where Dr. Tammy Rhea DDS, with the Remsen Dental Center, and thousands of dentists and dental laboratories throughout the nation come into play.

Rhea gives her time and her staff's time and materials -- at no cost -- through the Iowa Donated Dental Services (DDS) program.

"We provide help to patients who are underprivileged or handicapped," Rhea said. "I screen the patient for their needs."

Because she believes in "comprehensive dentistry," Rhea gives these patients a complete examination instead of focusing only on the initial problem.

"I've taken care of people who have MS (multiple sclerosis), older patients with health problems, who didn't have resources and opportunity to go to the dentist," Rhea said. "These people slip through the cracks."

The Iowa Dental Association endorsed establishing a DDS program in 2005 through the Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation and the National Foundation of Dentistry for the Handicapped.

The Iowa Department of Health has paid the program's operating costs since 2007.

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Rhea said she learned of the DDS program while attending an Iowa Dental Association meeting, and has participated ever since.

"These people truly need help, but don't want to ask for help," Rhea said. "I wanted to get involved because there were people like this that are having a hard time."

Since the Iowa DDS program's beginning, 254 individuals in the state have received $585,939 worth of donated dental care.

The National Foundation for Dentistry for the Handicapped has developed DDS programs since 1985. Currently there are programs in 37 states and together they generated $18.5 million in donated care during the fiscal year ending in June, according to the Iowa DDS program's annual report.

Rhea is the only DDS program participant in Plymouth County, but there are a total of 175 volunteer dentists and 41 dental laboratories throughout Iowa, according to the report.

Not only does she treat patients through the DDS program, but Rhea also keeps a close eye on the local community and donates her services. That's something she has done since the 1990s, before the state DDS program began.

"I would take care of people in our community that were having tough times," Rhea said. "I would just write that off. I think you should pay it forward."

And the patients she donates her services to are always thankful, Rhea said, and they show it with thank you cards and notes and sometimes cookies.

"You just feel so good when you hear they are appreciative of you," she said. "When you can help and they can feel good about it, it's a good feeling."

Rhea, who plans to eventually move from Remsen to Le Mars and merge her practice with Dr. Tom Bjorge's DDS creating the Le Mars Dental Center, said she will continue donating her services through the DDS program.

She hopes other dentists will get involved.

"It creates a rapport with the community," Rhea said. "It's a good way to get everybody in the community involved."

To apply for free dental services through Iowa Donated Dental Services (DDS) program contact:

Naomi Guinn-Johnson,

Donated Dental Services