Atlanta and Company Interview

Ryan: Welcome back to Atlanta and Company, I’m Ryan Cameron. Now, the “Give Back a Smile” program was established by the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry out of a desire to give something back to the community. Specifically, this program allows dentists to use their talent to help survivors of domestic violence who have suffered damage to or lost their smiles in an abusive attack, and Dr. Dina Giesler joins us now with more. Thank you very much for coming on the show today.

Dina: Thanks Ryan.

Ryan: Now how long have you been involved in dentistry?

Dina: Since 1980. I started working as a dental assistant in 1980 and then I became a hygienist and then I went back to dental school, and I’ve been a dentist for 15 years now.

Ryan: Now you’re just not just an—we say in the, in the tag that you’re a local dentist but I mean, you, you’re pretty big-time. You’ve got a lot of initials on the end of your name, like—

Dina: Yeah.

Ryan: You were just honored recently; talk about all the stuff you’ve been able to do.

Dina: Well, I mean there you know obviously are different initials after all doctors’ names, and most people don’t understand what they mean.

Ryan: Right.

Dina: Okay. M.A.G.D. stands for “Master’s of the Academy of General Dentistry” and what general dentists to is they continue their education, you know, year after year and they, you know, pursue higher levels within the field.

Ryan: So, you know, some people just can’t become a dentist and then not go back and learn about new techniques and new ways to treat people—you have to continue to, you know, update your résumé, I guess.

Dina: Sure, there’s so much to know.

Ryan: Alright, well, talk about what makes someone a master dentist.

Dina: Well, essentially you have to take 600 hours of continued education, and most of the—

Ryan: That’s a lotta work!

Dina: That’s a lot of work. Actually, there’s a five year program that you can go through, and we met for five years; four weekends a year for 24 hours each weekend…so, it was a good group of people. I think there was 14 of us from Atlanta, and, you know, this area.

Ryan: Okay. Let’s talk about the Give Back a Smile Foundation and why you’re so passionate about it.

Dina: Well, the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry has about 8,000 members—28 countries—and we are the only organized dental organization that’s doing what we’re doing—and I’m passionate about this cause because I’m passionate about women’s issues. I had an abusive first husband, so I understand—maybe not to the level that most of these women have had to suffer, you know, because I had the means to walk away—but I understand that, you know, to be a single mother and, you know, support children, and…you almost have to work three jobs. Who could afford dentistry?

Ryan: Mhm.

Dina: You know, and so, what the AACD is doing is we are reaching out to these women that have been abused by intimate partners, okay, and we are essentially doing their smile makeovers.

Ryan: Tell us about—we’ve got some pictures here—tell us about the history of the foundation while we look at these.

Dina: Okay, it was established in 1999 by Dr. Wynn Okuda out of Hawaii, Honolulu. He saw the problems with the military base, and, you know, you can look at certain classes and you’re going to see higher abuse levels. And I think he has done an amazing thing; I don’t think he even realizes what he started, but since then—okay, the foundation is about, what, six, seven years old?

Ryan: Mhm.

Dina: It took us five years to do a million dollars in services, and last year alone we did over $1.2 million in services with one and a half staff members and about an $88,000 budget, so we are taking off.

Ryan: That’s amazing.

Dina: I know. We are taking off. We—

Ryan: Now, you also have your own foundation. What made you decide to begin your own foundation?

Dina: Okay, you know, when I saw how hard I was working with this foundation and how passionate I was—because I used to work for the public health service and I used to treat a lot of Medicaid children in Texas and, you know, these kids could come in and get anything they wanted done, but their moms would come in, and, you know, the mom may have five kids, and, 25 years old and she’s missing her front tooth.

Ryan: Right.

Dina: You know, “Dr. Dina, can you fix my tooth?” Well, there are no programs, really, to help these women unless they can go to some of the local, you know, community, you know, centers and stuff, but they’re bombarded. And so, I thought, “You know what? What if we started a local foundation that could kind of piggy-back off of Give Back a Smile?” So I started the Atlanta Smiles Foundation. My girlfriend—who is also a survivor, who is a cosmetic dentist in Chicago, um, Dr. Lana Haligius, serves on the board with me for Give Back a Smile—is going to start Chicago Smiles. So I’m thinking, Give Back a Smile can be the big spider, and we can be the legs off of it. Essentially, that’s how March of Dimes got started.

Ryan: Okay. You know you have an event coming up next year; you want to tell us about it?

Dina: I want to tell you about this—‘cause you’re involved.

[Both laugh]

Dina: We’ve got a lot of people involved.

Ryan: We do.

Dina: You know, this is our 27^th international conference, and this is the first time it’s ever been in Atlanta, so what we want to do—I’m chairing the event, the Give Back a Smile event, and it’s at the World Congress Center. It is a private event, um, we have Kenny Rogers performing, we have Wes Sarginson, as I guess our MC, you’re going to be there…

Ryan: In some capacity.

Dina: You are going to be our auctioneer.

Ryan: Right.

Dina: Anyways, we, you know, we are working really hard to bring this to a national level. Um, I met Mychael Knight the other night for the first time, and he wants to help with the fashion show, so we’ve got elite, um, models, and we’ve got a lot of people that want to get on board with this, so—

Ryan: Sounds like it’s going to a great event.

Dina: That’s next May, it’s going to be great.

Ryan: Alright. Well thanks for coming on today. And I just want to, you know, say officially, thank you for all the stuff you’ve done for the B-Team, which is part of my foundation, the young men and women that we kind of adopted through the foundation; you’ve helped them get a little self-esteem back as they’re going to school, lot of juniors and seniors, and they’re very very thankful of what you’ve done.

Dina: Well, thanks.

Ryan: Thank you very much!

Dina: Okay.

Ryan: Alright now. For more information on the Give Back a Smile program, visit aacd.com or givebackasmile.com. Now if you are a domestic violence survivor and you want to get your smile back, call 1-800-773-GBAS to get an application for the program. This segment was paid for by Atlanta Smile Foundation.