South Dakota
Local Hero: Dr. C.

Dr. C. has been in practice for almost 30 years, and 26 of those years have been in Sioux Falls. The future dentist grew up in a small town in Iowa, where he was influenced by his father, “the original country-doctor type who worked late and was always on call on weekends.” Dr. C. was drawn to DDS because he understood the need for a program serving “a population that needed help and couldn’t afford it.”  When the program came to South Dakota, he and two of his partners signed up. One of their most recent DDS patients was a man in his early 60s with compromised medical health. “He’s a musician, but he couldn’t work,” says Dr. C. “He told me afterwards that they didn’t really expect him to live beyond a few months. We did extractions and a new upper and lower denture. I play guitar, and we ended up being good buddies—we would get together and he would teach me the blues. He’s a super individual, and it turned into a mutually beneficial experience.”  Dr. C. has high praise for DDS. “The case selection has been excellent,” he says. “The patients are very dependable and appreciative. The bottom line is that there’s satisfaction in helping out when people need a hand and they don’t have a lot of options.”