It's no surprise that Santa had to make a stop at Sarrell Dental during his travels this holiday season; after all, with an organization that sees so many children each year, he was bound to have the opportunity to meet many children whose names were on his list.

While Sarrell Dental takes pride in providing community services in Cleburne County, Calhoun County and throughout the state, on Saturday, December 5th they offered free pictures with Santa for anyone who wanted to bring their child to visit Old St. Nick.

Sarrell Dental is a non-profit organization which provides services for children ages 1-20 who are Medicaid and/or All-Kids eligible. At Sarrell, they are dedicated to caring for traditionally underserved children in Alabama.

With recent statistics noting nearly six out of ten Alabama children eligible for Medicaid dental benefits are not using these resources, Sarrell Dental feels their involvement in the community to be even more of a necessity. This is why Sarrell provides free dental screenings and dental education to elementary schools, day cares, and HeadStarts in each of their eight locations across the state. In addition, children are given the basic items necessary to ensure adequate oral care in Sarrell's prevention efforts for instances in which children either have no dental home or do not have regularly scheduled appointments to receive dental care. Having performed screenings and dental education lessons for a total of 71,283 children within the state of Alabama during the 2008-2009 school year, Sarrell knows they are making a positive impact on both those who do and don't have a dental home.

Aside from community involvement, within the Sarrell Dental Center environment, the priority of their dentists is to provide quality care for every child seen. Sarrell only hires fully trained dentists who are qualified by the state of Alabama to perform services. Furthermore, it is Sarrell's priority to make sure each child feels very comfortable while visiting their offices.

Sarrell's Chief Marketing Officer, Brandi Parris, states, "We try our best to make it a fun experience to come to the dentist." This is obvious by the brightly painted walls throughout the office and the TV's above each dental chair. It seems their idea of making a visit to the dentist fun just might be working, as Sarrell Dental had 35,000 patient visits in 2008 and is projected to have more than 55,000 visits in 2009.

No wonder Santa made a stop by Sarrell Dental to join in the fun with the Sarrell Staff and listen to the wants of the many children on his nice list.

The day ended in good spirits, as more than 100 children came to get their free 5x7 photo taken with Santa.

Sarrell Dental and their team were happy to spread the spirit of giving during the holiday season, and look forward to continue their giving throughout the 2010 year.