Inspired to improve dental health worldwide

The founder of the Tooth Fairy Children’s Foundation does much more than leave toonies for teeth and is our Inspiring Albertan this week.

Surrounded by children in Africa, Coramarie Clark stands out in the crowd in Kenya with her blonde hair and pink tooth fairy gown.

Clark is the founder and president of the Tooth Fairy Children’s Foundation. The idea came to her eight years ago when she read a startling statistic from the World Health Organization.

Prevention begins with proper hygiene and millions of children in the world don't even own a tooth brush, so that's where Clark started.“Over 90 percent of children that get a cavity in a developing country will never be seen by a dentist and I was horrified and I knew I had to do something and the best way to fight decay is prevention and I founded the Tooth Fairy Children's Foundation,” said Clark.

“We've put over a million tooth brushes into the hands of kids in over 50 countries. Our mission is to provide every child worldwide with a toothbrush, education and access to dental care.”

Clark is a trained dental hygienist and now works as a dental consultant, so she has solid connections in the dental profession.

Dr. Craig Young is a Calgary dentist and a member of the Tooth Fairy Foundation Board of Directors and says it was easy to get caught up in Clark’s vision.

“She has so much energy and so much passion about everything that she does ,whether it's in her consulting business, whatever, but when she really took on this mission of really wanting to make a difference in children's live it just, you see this light in her eyes,” said Dr. Young.

Children in scattered parts of the world have seen that light as Clark takes her message to as many countries as possible and earlier this year she visited earthquake ravaged Nepal.

She says the needs in parts of northern Canada are similar to developing countries.

The work of the Tooth Fairy Children's Foundation is funded through donations, sponsorships and the annual Tooth Fairy Gala.

This year’s event is on Friday, October 16th and the theme is an old fashioned masquerade ball..

For all she does to improve dental health around the world, Coramarie Clark is our Inspiring Albertan this week.

Source: http://calgary.ctvnews.ca/inspired-to-improve-dental-health-worldwide-1.2599507

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