Four Years In: $15.8 Million in Donated Dentistry
- Local Start Dental
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
Four years ago, Local Start Dental opened the doors of a single clinic in downtown Durham.
This year, we crossed $15.8 million in cumulative donated dentistry.
That number represents 3,570 unique patients who received care they could not otherwise afford. It represents thousands of procedures performed, hundreds of dentures fitted, hundreds of implants placed. It represents people who walked into our clinic after years of avoiding dental care and walked out with their first comprehensive exam in a decade, sometimes longer.
It also represents something harder to quantify: a model of nonprofit dental care that, in four years, has scaled from a small Durham clinic to an organization serving patients from 78 of North Carolina's 100 counties — while simultaneously training the next generation of dentists from across the country.
This is how it happened.
The Trajectory
Local Start Dental's growth tells its own story when laid out year by year:
2021 — Clinic opens in downtown Durham. Dr. Mahmoud Serag, our Clinical Director, joins the team. The organization begins as a small clinic with a focused mission: provide complex restorative dentistry to patients who couldn't otherwise access it.
2022 — The Southeast Institute for Dental Education (SIDE) is established. The first continuing education courses are completed, marking the start of Local Start's dual-mission model.
2023 — The team grows to ten-plus members. The clinic surpasses 1,000 patients served.
2024 — Three SIDE courses bring 17 dentists from across the country to Durham, where they place a combined 100 implants. Local Start's statewide reach begins to take shape.
2025 — Strategic planning process completed. The organization expands into general dentistry services. The year closes with $4.8 million in donated dentistry delivered, more than 22,000 procedures performed, and patients seen from 78 of 100 NC counties.
From a single clinic to a statewide-serving institution with a national professional training arm — in four years.
What 2025 Looked Like
The most recent year of this trajectory was, by every measure, our largest yet.
In 2025 alone, Local Start Dental delivered:
$4.8 million in donated dentistry
22,309 procedures performed
2,875 extractions
524 dental implants
558 complete and partial dentures
86 implant-supported dentures
Six continuing education courses through SIDE
Behind each of those numbers is a person who walked through our doors after years of avoiding dental care, of hiding their smile, of believing care was out of reach. The procedures we performed were not abstract. They were the moment someone could chew without pain, speak clearly in a job interview, sleep through the night, laugh without covering their mouth.
Reaching Every Corner of North Carolina
The 78 counties figure is one of the clearest signals of how far the organization has grown. A year earlier, that number was lower. The year before that, lower still. Each year, more patients have found their way to Local Start — many of them traveling hours across the state to receive care.
North Carolina has some of the highest rates of untreated dental disease in the country, and access drops sharply outside of urban centers. For patients in rural counties, the nearest comprehensive dental clinic may be hours away. Local Start was built to close that gap — not just for the people who live near us, but for the people who don't have a "near."
A Patient's Words
The impact of this work is best understood through the people who experience it.
"It was hard to get prepared for the process since it's definitely life changing. But my experience at Local Start Dental was so much easier than I thought it would be. This is the most beautiful I've felt in 10 years. It's been a complete change. I feel like I really am beautiful. At the moment, I am working at a rehabilitation treatment center and feel more comfortable at my job. As well, my mouth doesn't hurt like it used to and I am now able to feel confident in my ability to care for my oral health. Overall, I've had an excellent experience, and I am excited to start my future with my new smile!"
— Patient K
This is the work. Not the procedures themselves, but what the procedures unlock: confidence, employment stability, the simple human ability to feel comfortable in your own face.
The Dual Mission: Patient Care and Professional Training
Most dental nonprofits do one thing. Local Start Dental does two.
Alongside our patient-facing clinic, we run the Southeast Institute for Dental Education (SIDE), a continuing education program that trains practicing dentists in complex restorative and surgical procedures. In 2025, we completed six SIDE courses — bringing together dentists from across the country for hands-on training in implant placement, extractions, and full-arch restoration under the mentorship of board-certified specialists.
The model is unique in dental philanthropy: SIDE participants pay tuition that helps sustain our patient-facing mission, and the patients they treat as part of their training receive complex care they could not otherwise afford. Two missions. One model. Every course advances both.
We launched SIDE in 2022 with our first cohort. Three years later, it has become one of the most distinctive aspects of what Local Start does — and a quiet force-multiplier on our broader impact. The dentists trained through SIDE return to their own practices across the country, carrying the skills they've learned into communities we will never serve directly.
Our Team
None of this happens without people. Our team has grown to sixteen:
Five administrators
Three providers
Five dental assistants
One laboratory technician
Two pre-dental interns
Each of them shows up every day for patients who, in many cases, have been turned away or priced out of care elsewhere. Our pre-dental interns represent the next generation of dental professionals — students who will carry this model of care into their own careers, wherever they practice.
Our Partners
Local Start Dental does not operate in isolation. We work alongside a network of nonprofit, healthcare, and community organizations across North Carolina — each of which shares our commitment to making care accessible:
Community Care Clinic of Dare, American Heart Association, the SNDA CAARE Clinic, Durham Rescue Mission, El Futuro, Meals on Wheels Durham, Lincoln Community Health Center, El Centro Hispano, StepUp Durham, Piedmont Health, Rural Health Group, Orange County Health Department, Duke Health, the UNC Adams School of Dentistry, Urban Ministries of Durham, and Wake Smiles.
These partnerships make it possible for us to reach patients who would otherwise fall through the cracks of the traditional healthcare system. They also reflect a truth we have come to believe deeply: the dental care crisis in this country is too large for any single organization to solve. It will take a network. We are proud of the one we are part of.
What Comes Next
Four years in, Local Start Dental has stopped being a young organization and become an established one. The strategic plan is complete. The expansion into general dentistry is underway. The team is built. The model works.
What comes next is scale.
We will continue to provide dentistry to North Carolinians who cannot afford it. We will continue to train dentists who will carry this work forward. And we will continue to grow — into more counties, more procedures, more lives changed.
But we cannot do it alone.
Every dollar donated to Local Start Dental becomes care. Not overhead, not abstract mission language — care, delivered to a person in a chair, restoring something they had given up on. If you have given to us, thank you. If you have considered it, this is the moment.
How You Can Support Us
There are also other ways to support our work:
Explore SIDE training opportunities for dentists looking to advance their skills
Volunteer your time as a dental assistant, hygienist, general practitioner, or specialist
Refer a patient who lacks traditional insurance or qualifies for Medicaid
Donate dental products, equipment, or supplies used in the clinic
Thank you for being part of this journey. We could not do it without you.
