In February of 2023, a letter from a patient arrived in the in-box at Raynor Dental. It wasn’t about the patient’s care, or a billing question, but instead it told the story of a young man in Rwanda named Benoni.
A few years ago, Nancy Zeller created a small nonprofit called Rwanda-one4one to support children’s education and women’s employment in the African nation. Benoni was working toward completing high school in 2022 when a soccer ball hit him in the face, knocking out one front tooth and cracking the other. The risk of infection was high, and everywhere in the world the loss of one’s front teeth is a source of stress and embarrassment. Nancy’s non-profit had allocated the amount needed to get Benoni and his mother from their home in the Western Province to a dentist in the city of Kigali for a consultation. His smile could be repaired, but the cost was outside Benoni’s reach. Nancy asked: could Raynor Dental help?
Rwanda isn’t exactly in the Monadnock Region of New Hampshire, but Raynor Dental’s commitment to quality, ethical dental care doesn’t know borders. The donation covered the cost of two additional trips to the dentist in Kigali, plus the full cost of extraction, treatment, two weeks of antibiotics, and two new removable teeth. Benoni’s family sent photos with his new appliance, and this promising young man looks like his old self again. Raynor Dental knows that access to dental care can change lives. That’s why we offer Preventiv-Care membership discounts to people who don’t have insurance, and why we hold occasional Free Dental Days, in which people with limited income can walk in for a free exam and single procedure.
