To kick off National Children’s Dental Health Month, more than 100 needy local children received free dental treatment, including 149 sealants, 68 fillings, 46 extractions and four crowns.

But one child left the 11th annual Give Kids A Smile Day with a different reason to smile. A volunteer dentist assessing the girl’s health history found that she had a serious heart condition that had gone untreated. For patients with such a condition, dental procedures could be life-threatening. But without medical insurance, the child’s mother said, she had been unable to see a doctor.

East Central Dental Society Give Kids A Smile Co-Chairman Dr. Lee Lewis contacted representatives at East Carolina University’s Brody School of Medicine, one of the partnering agencies, for help.

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