Compassion Dental is Northern Nevada’s ONLY free dental clinic, offering health and hope to uninsured, low-income adults. We provide free exams, x-rays, fillings, extractions and cleanings to patients who meet our qualifying criteria.
Dr. McElroy (left) and Taylor (right) celebrating the completion of patient Celsa's (center) treatment.
OUR MISSION
To deliver compassionate, high-quality, free dental care to the uninsured and underserved adult population suffering throughout the communities of Northern Nevada.
OUR MINISTRY
Compassion Dental strives to reflect the love and hope of Jesus Christ in all our services. Our desire is for each patient to leave healthy, with a beautiful smile on their face, and a promise of a purposeful future because of the compassionate care they received.
OUR VISION
We hope to grow our organization over the next 5-years to provide all of Northern Nevada’s uninsured and underserved eligible adults with healthy smiles, lasting friendships, and the promise of a purposeful future through the love and hope of Jesus Christ.
If you want to know more about Compassion Dental’s 5-year growth plan, please email info@compassondental.org and we’d be happy to set up a meeting with you!
Compassion Dental's Story:
Co-founders Shari Byrnes (left) and Chris Ormsby (center) pose with Mary (right) who was part of Compassion Dental's original volunteer team.
Compassion Dental was founded as Compassion Community Clinic, a 501(c)3 organization, in 2012 by Chris Ormsby BSN, RN and Shari Byrnes, CDA. In March of 2013, with the help of many volunteers and generous community donations, we were able to secure a vacated dental office and make renovations to ensure the clinic was fully stocked and functional before our Grand Opening on December 7th, 2013. For the first six months, the clinic was staffed by three dentists, three hygienists, two dental assistants, and four non-dental volunteers.
When COVID-19 hit, Compassion Community Clinic was forced to shut down and was unable to reopen for nine months. During our hiatus, we felt God was providing us with an opportunity to reevaluate our mission, ministry, and vision for the clinic. After much reflection, we realized God had bigger plans for us than we could have ever imagined. In faith, our Board of Directors brought on a new Executive Director (JS Parker) and Director of Operations (Taylor Washalefsky) and decided to rebrand ourselves as Compassion Dental.
After many hours spent preparing to reopen the clinic under new management and new COVID regulations, Compassion Dental began treating patients again on November 14th, 2020. In the past, we had been blessed to treat about 70 patients a year, and just treated our 500th patient in March of 2021! However, we recognize the growing need for accessible and affordable dental care in Nevada, and have lofty goals to extend our reach within the community. By the end of 2021, we hope to have treated 200 patients, and to continue tripling that amount each year!
Compassion Dental’s Mission and Ministry are only made possible through the generosity of our donors, the kindness of our committed dental professional volunteers, the devotion of our ministry and administrative volunteers, and the love of our caring and dedicated employees. If you have a heart to give back to our community, please consider joining Compassion Dental through donations or volunteering today.
Our Clinic
