COMMUNITY

Orthodontists offer discount for community service

Tara Melton
Alamogordo Daily News
Neysa Smith and Rosanna Jackson, dental assistants at Mountain View Dental and Orthodontics, look at each other's braces on Wednesday. Mountain View has a new program that allows teens to get a discount on their braces by completing community service hours in Alamogordo.

Mountain View Dental and Orthodontics has started a program to better serve the Alamogordo community by trading community service for $500 and $1000 discounts on braces for teenagers.

Neysa Smith, a dental assistant at Mountain View Dental and Orthodontics, works to prepare a tray on Wednesday.

"Dr. (David) Farnsworth and Dr. (Joseph) Westover worked it out where if you complete 50 hours of volunteer work within the community, you'll get $500 credit towards your treatment," said Ashlee Destajo, Mountain View employee. "If you do 100 hours worth of work, you get $1000 towards your treatment."

Destajo said typically braces can range anywhere from $2,500 and up, depending on how much work needs to be done. While this program greatly helps families without insurance, kids who are covered under insurance are still eligible for this program.

"I believe the down payment is $500 when you get them bonded," Destajo said. "Off the top of my head, I know MetLife will cover $1,500 or 50 percent. So if the bonding itself was $1,000 the insurance would cover 50 percent up to $1,500."

Mountain View Dental and Orthodontics is offering $500 and $1000 discounts on braces for teens who complete volunteer work at one of the 14 community organizations Mountain View has approved.

Under this program, teenagers log their volunteer hours and have them signed off. They have one year from the date of the braces being bonded to turn in their community service hours into Mountain View Dental and Orthodontics.

Approved community service organizations are Love INC, Alamogordo Public Library Foundation, Animal Rescue Mission, Habitat for Humanity, Flickinger Center Guild, Salvation Army, Senior Center of Alamogordo, Thrift Store at Holloman Air Force Base, Alamogordo Evening Lions Club, Downtown Merchants Association, Alamogordo MainStreet, First Assembly-The Worship Center and the New Mexico Museum of Space History.

"If there are any other (community organizations) that are looking for volunteers, they can contact us and ask for Alexis Sifuentes," Destajo said. "She can make sure we get them added onto our list."

Destajo said Mountain View's motto is "When You Smile, We Smile" and this program is another way they can continue enhancing patient's smiles but also make the community smile.

"(Mountain View Dental and Orthodontics) really wants to give back to the community," Destajo said. "Kids learning to give back makes them a little bit more humble, appreciative and they get to see what else is going on out there. I think it's a great experience for anybody, not just teenagers, to volunteer somewhere and help out."

So far, Mountain View has only had one patient complete the 50 volunteer hours. But with the understanding that it takes time to accumulate the community service hours, they expect more kids to participate.

"It helps the parents out because braces are expensive," Destajo said. "It also helps (the teenager) give back to the community, which is one of our biggest things. We love seeing people give back."

Destajo said her parents had a hard time affording braces for their kids because it's expensive and they had six kids.

"If they had something like this program, it would've been a great experience for me and it would've also helped my parents out," she said. "I'm a military brat and I don't know of anywhere that offered something like this. I think it's a great opportunity for people and they should take advantage of it."

For more information, call Mountain View Dental and Orthodontics at 437-7900.