By DAWNE LEIKER

dleiker@dailynews.net

A local dental office will provide free educational, preventative and restorative services to children from low-income families during Give Kids a Smile, an event scheduled for Friday.

Lifetime Dental Care, partnering with the American Dental Association and Henry Schein Dental, will offer services by appointment at their office at 2701 Sternberg from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday.

Although staff of the dental office has participated in other dental volunteer efforts such as Kansas Mission of Mercy, a charitable dental health project that provides free dental care in cities throughout the state, Jana and Jeff Lowe, owners of Lifetime Dental Care said they were eager to implement a similar program locally.

The hope eventually is to expand the program, which is geared to children, to all low-income individuals in Ellis County and surrounding areas in the future.

"This is kind of a stepping stone for that," Jana Lowe said. "Our goal eventually is to do it in the spring, summer or fall, where the weather is more predictable so we can open it up to more people."

Friday's event celebrates the 10th year of ADA's Give Kids a Smile program, which was implemented to bring attention to the epidemic of untreated oral disease among disadvantaged children.

More than 44,800 dental team members nationwide participated in the program last year.

Give Kids a Smile also seeks to provide an effective platform for dental societies to advocate a common sense approach to local access problems, delivering the message that government officials and society at large need to work together to see all children receive needed dental care.

Jana Lowe said she anticipated Lifetime Dental Care's staff of two dentists and three hygienists could serve up to 150 children during the day. Appointments for children can be made by calling (785) 625-7969.