Hometown Dental Co. ready to support schools, Puntam County community

For the last 16 years, Hometown Dental Co. has assisted Putnam County residents and student-athletes and raised awareness of the good that is taking place across the county. 

This support includes the Hometown Heroes Program, where Hometown Dental Co. recognizes a person nominated by a local school and donates to that person's charity of choice. 

"As a dental office, people are often times surprised to the degree we try to stay connected to the community and try to serve the community even outside of when they come in for care and treatment. One of our values within our mission statement is how do we care for our community and deliver smiles to our community, even the community members who may never walk through our door at the practice," said Joel Everson of Hometown Dental Co. 

Everson said creating awareness within students about dental care and the importance of having a mouthguard are central to that mission. 

"We had this idea to create the Hometown Heroes Program. It is a great opportunity for us to be able to partner with all the county schools and teams. The teams then select and vote on a Hometown Hero. That person can be a student or adult who is doing good work in the community that sometimes gets overlooked. It is an opportunity for us to highlight that good work, and the beauty to us is we tie in the fact that community service is part of being a good citizen," Everson said. 

Additionally, Everson said Hometown Dental Co. further promotes that belief by donating mouthguards to every athlete at Putnam County high schools. 

"Every time they put it in, we hope it serves as a reminder that we are connected to a community, that we are part of this community, and that we get to serve them in various capacities," he said. 

Everson said the business also wants to be the county's "hometown" business for dental care. 

"I love the fact that we are a hometown dental practice. Our aspiration is to be in this community and to be connected to the broader hometown. One of the things that we often times talk about because of where we are in a rural area, we have a lot of patients that come from Reelsville, Bainbridge, Russellville, and Roachdale. We went through this process a few years ago of talking to a lot of our patients and the word that stood out was hometown. We decided to really lean into that. The idea is we are Russellville's hometown dental care. We want to be the place you feel welcome and cared for. Dr. (Dennis) Knauth and Dr. (Tess) Funke are both very involved in the community," Everson said. 

The sense of community will be on full display Sept. 18 as Hometown Dental Co. hosts its annual Free Dental Friday event. 

"It is one of our favorite things that we get to do every year, and it is 14 years of doing it. We give dentistry back at no cost on that day. On Sept. 18, patients will have an opportunity to register at 7 a.m. and services begin at 8 a.m. We always have people lined up, and it is first come, first serve until it fills up. Our goal is always how can we serve as many people as possible, and our goal is to serve a few hundred patients. It is designed for folks who don't have dental insurance and they can choose a cleaning, an extraction, a filling and we try to do things that can be efficient so we can fit in as many people as possible," Everson said. 

In addition to Free Dental Friday, the free food truck program will also be back.

"We get to partner with Heather Taylor at State Farm and we get to offer free food trucks on that day as well. You don't have to be a patient, you don't have to get a service, but you can get free lunch on that day. We will have food trucks for lunch, and it is another great way we can give back and say thank you," Everson said.