Give Back A Smile, a cosmetic dentistry agency, started about 10 years ago in Illinois.  The program helps victims of domestic abuse by fixing their teeth free of charge.  They estimate that some $8 Million per year is spent on cosmetic dentistry spawned from domestic violence.  This program, as the SunTimes.com reports, helps victims who have been out of abusive relationship for at least one full year.  Read the excerpt below for more.

Original Source: Chicago Sun-Times

When her ex-husband put her in a choke hold nearly a decade ago, Lucretia Williams desperately bit her way out.  Williams, 43, of Humboldt Park, said the violent tussle led her to pack up her kids, leave the relationship, find a job and work toward her GED.

The fight also loosened her bottom front teeth, which eventually had to be removed. Her damaged smile remains a constant reminder of a tough time in her life she has worked hard to put behind her.  “I’ve been in the bathroom literally pulling up my bottom lip to cover it,” she said. “It’s hard. I’ll be trying to carry on a conversation knowing it can be seen, it is being seen and that they [the teeth] are not there.”  In about two weeks, Williams will hide her smile no longer. Partnered up with a Chicago cosmetic dentist through a national program called Give Back A Smile, she has received extensive dental work as well as a new partial denture to fill in her missing teeth.

Give Back A Smile started a decade ago through the American Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry. The program estimates that 827 domestic violence victims have received treatments worth a total of nearly $8 million.  Participants need to be out of the abusive relationship for at least a year, unless their partner is incarcerated. They also need to meet at least once with a counselor, minister or social worker, who signs off on the application.

Williams said she learned about Give Back A Smile from a woman working at the Association House of Chicago, where she studies for her GED.  Dentist Kevin Landers said his work on Williams and another woman totaled about $50,000, and he solicited donations to help with the needed materials.  His participation also opened up a dialogue between him and his staff about domestic violence.  “It’s eye-opening,” he said. “Everyone has dark corners in life. Everyone has issues. Everyone has not-perfect families.”