“Mom, can we go to the dentist?” is probably not a sentence that has often left a child’s mouth. Long to-do lists with unaccomplished tasks usually leave dentist appointments buried within the rest. For some, this is simply another obligation to check off the list, but for others, it is a necessity they can’t afford.

On Dec. 5, 2025, Texas A&M College of Dentistry’s partnership with TeamSmile allowed for hundreds of kids to receive care at the Globe Life Field in Arlington. TeamSmile serves as a national nonprofit providing free dental care for students in a sports-themed environment to create an interactive experience. Serving the community in the Arlington-DFW school districts, A&M dentistry students provided everything from annual checkups to showcasing the importance of the health profession. 

Dentistry student Sarah Gain said that she believes dentistry is a powerful field and one that is more creative than some might think. 

“I went into dentistry because I really like the artistic aspect of dentistry and how there’s so many different subcategories in dentistry, one of them being public health,” Gain said. “ … There’s a lot of fabricating things to place in patients’ mouths. It’s really aesthetic.”

TeamSmile’s events directly impact the dental health of underserved students. While the importance of a dental appointment is often understated, dentistry student Breanna Hervey explained the significance behind these recurring appointments. Extraoral exams are crucial in checking the head and shoulders for diseases such as oral cancer or swollen lymph nodes, while intraoral exams check inside the mouth at the gums, teeth and tongue. 

“Not only do we need to make sure that the primary set of teeth are healthy, but we also need to make sure that the permanent set of teeth are going to be healthy when they come in,” Hervey said. “So in one way, it’s to treat whatever’s going on, but it’s also preventative to make sure that they’re going to be able to have a sustainable dentition in the future with their permanent teeth.”

Gain said that while preventative aspects of dental care are important, the desensitization to the dental experience is also crucial. Gain also mentioned kids may feel anxious in a dental setting, but TeamSmile attempted to prepare them to feel more confident.

“I think the importance of the exam at TeamSmile was also to get kids accustomed to what dental instruments look like, how we want to talk to them [and] making them feel comfortable,” Gain said. “ … If they’re worried or if they’re stressed out a little bit, what we can do to help manage that, kind of ease them into the dental appointment so that they’re more accustomed to routine care.”

Dentistry student and TeamSmile event volunteer Garrett Franco said one particular transformation was one of the most impactful moments of the day: turning fear into strength.

“They sit in your chair, you ask them questions about themselves and they are too terrified to even look at you or talk to you,” Franco said. “… And when it’s over and they survive and they realize, ‘OK, that wasn’t so bad,’ and they’re walking a little bit tall, their chest a little bit puffed out … there’s no better feeling than that.”

Hervey said this fear might stem from limited interaction with dentists or negative perceptions, but allowing dentists to be seen in an interactive and fun environment allows students to gain a new perspective on healthcare providers. 

“I didn’t ever get a chance to see a dentist in a playful environment or like see a dentist in a way where I could ask them questions or get to know anything,” Hervey said. “ … I feel like that’s a personal experience that a lot of people will not get a chance to be that up and close and just have a chance to like maybe even hang out with a dentist, ask some questions and stuff like that.”

However, this impact would not have been possible without the resilience from the dentistry students themselves. Clinical associate professor Dr. Simmi Patel said that during the event the team encountered a setback and were unsure whether they would be able to finish providing care. 

“A couple of the other faculty came up, and they said, ‘There’s no way we’re going to finish because the students had to be on the bus back to their schools,’” Patel said. “… And so we were worried, but the [dental] students just, I have to say, they stepped it up. They did what we asked them to do, and we finished on time.”

Ultimately, hundreds of students were able to receive care at the TeamSmile event. Gain said the students left happy, with a newfound resilience and received great care.

“It hit me when the sheer amount of kids were just going by like busload after busload after busload, and we were genuinely providing great care for them,” Gain said. “ … It was awesome to just see the amount of students that we could treat that day.”

The impact of TeamSmile not only helped to serve hundreds of patrons, but also shone a light on the power of healthcare. Quality, access and education were all aspects at the event to encourage individual and community health. 

“We’ve only been given one set of teeth, and we need to protect them at all costs because they’re not going to grow back,” Franco said. “If we can start educating these children at a young age who don’t have access to the dentist as to how to prevent dental disease, then we are sustaining their oral health forever.”