A City Heights-based dental clinic is looking for volunteer dentists and other dental professionals so that they can continue to expand their mission.
Cura Smiles is a no-cost dental clinic that primarily services people through referrals. Their clientele ranges from the unsheltered population to refugees who come from destabilized regions that left them unable to access basic health care — any underserved group in San Diego.
“In the beginning we thought it was all about teeth, and it has become so clear that it is about more than teeth,” said Clairemont resident Janet Simpson, one of two volunteer coordinators for the clinic. “It is about human heart and people who just need hope and people who care for them, and they need to feel seen, and heard, and loved.”
She and fellow coordinator Darlene McCarthy, each of whom have decades of dentistry experience between them, organized a team of 46 volunteers, who in 2025 alone delivered more than half a million dollars worth of free dental care to 300-plus patients.
A patient being worked on at a free dental clinic from Cura Smiles. (Photo courtesy Cura Smiles)“All of our volunteers need to be professionals, so just having people come in — that’s difficult,” said McCarthy. “They have to go through infection control, they have to go through OSHA, and they have to understand dentistry.”
McCarthy said that volunteers would be getting in and working dental operatories with patients, so having the proper training is key for signing up to volunteer.
“We need volunteer dentists —we need general dentists, we need oral surgeons, prosthodontists… Nothing fancy, we’re just getting people out of pain and functioning again,” she said, adding that there is also a need for dentists to donate time from their own practices, as opposed to coming to their City Heights clinic to do work.
Cura Smiles was founded in 2017 by Dr. Thomas Fitzpatrick, a Point Loma Nazarene graduate who spent years providing dental care on teams in Mexico, Sri Lanka, and annual trips to Nicaragua before deciding to open a clinic in San Diego. McCarthy and Simpson joined him in 2019, and have been working together since.
Both agree that the work that they do is life-changing in fundamental ways.
“Many of our patients smile like this and laugh like this,” said Simpson, covering her mouth with her hand to demonstrate. “We can help them smile, and we can help them laugh.”
While Cura Smiles is always looking for dentists, hygienists, and other professionals to do work, they are also grateful for donations from those without dental experience who wish to support their mission, which is funded entirely by donations and grants.
More information about how to support the organization can be found here.
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