Who We Are
Open Wide is a foundation of dentists with a mission to make a difference in the developing world. We realize the power of our collective energy and we know it will take us far.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.- Confucius
We encourage dentists to give one week a year providing basic dental care in the developing world. It's a week that can change your life.
Dentists who join Open Wide are a lot like you. They wish to challenge themselves. They have the talent, the time, and the money—and they feel the need to give back. They are driven to leave the world a better place.
If this sounds like you, you're a good fit for Open Wide.
Give just seven days and help break the cycle of poverty. Seven days for a better world. Seven days to remember for the rest of your life. Seven days that will fill you up with even more than you give.
Because you, who have already achieved so much in life, want more from it.
What We Believe
We know that dental health is a long way down the list of the developing world's concerns. Nutrition, clean drinking water, and education all take priority over teeth. But practicing basic dentistry in a community is a way to reach out—by reaching in. Stop the pain of a toothache and you gain an individual's trust and respect. It initiates a two-way conversation with the community's members, a conversation about what is most needed, and how those things might be realized.
What if the dental work was not an end unto itself, but a means, a way in? What if dentistry became an 'excuse' to eradicate poverty?
Poverty is most easily recognized by what it lacks: adequate housing, money, employment, nutrition, etc. But far more insidious is the inertia caused by its cycle. Poverty creates negative cultural norms that are ingrained to a point where the prospect of changing is more daunting than simply staying put. It becomes a way of life, a worldview that says "This is the way things have always been." This is the poverty of hope itself. Without hope, a community cannot believe in a better future or imagine anything other than hard times. This, we believe, is the most tragic poverty of all. What if we offered a glimpse of a different worldview? What if we planted the idea that things didn't always have to be this way? What if we brought an abundance of hope to a community?
