Dr. izchak Barzilay

building smiles around the world

and continuing to boost oral health and confidence online and on city streets in canada

the ugandan, standing barely five-foot tall, had been treated the previous year by Dr. izchak Barzilay at the same outreach clinic in the country’s Kabale district. looking up at Barzilay towering over him, the man pointed an accusing finger. “last year,” he said, “you took out my tooth. You took away my smile, and i want it back.” Barzilay happily obliged, sending the man away with a new denture that same day from the temporary clinic that was set up by Toronto-based Build Your Smile Dental Foundation in

partnership with the ugandan NGO KihEFO. For ugandans, “their smiles are important,” says Barzilay, who is the foundation’s cEO. “if they don’t have their front teeth, they can’t get work, they can’t get married.”

Build Your Smile was founded in 2018 as a way for Barzilay to provide added support to the international dental missions he first began in 2014. During five ensuing visits to the East african nation, Barzilay undertook extractions, restorations, dentures and, later, limited implant treatment. in its first outreach initiative in uganda, the Build Your Smile team served not only the people of Kabale but patients at the united Nations Nakivale refugee camp, located in the south. a major component of Barzilay’s is creating same-day denture fabrication. This revolutionary process creates dentures in four to five hours, with the team churning out upwards of 20 in one day. First, moulds are made of the patient’s mouth, creating a template for casts. composite resin is adapted to the cast, then light cured, followed by a fitting in the patient’s mouth. The patients are “absolutely thrilled,” says Barzilay, who is the former president of the american prosthodontic Society and owner of a private prosthodontic and implant practice in Toronto. last year, Barzilay’s uganda mission occurred in February, with the team returning to canada just before cOViD-19 shut down international travel. (During the visit, they saw more than 3,000 patients, young and old, and created about 100 dentures.) This summer’s planned mission to uganda is almost certainly grounded, delayed to January 2022. Build Your Smile, however, is still carrying out its education initiatives in uganda. Normally, a two-day symposium for ugandan dental students is held at the end of each eight-day clinical visit. During 2020, online symposia were held in Kampala, uganda’s capital city, providing basic to advanced continuing education in such areas as denture removal and construction and implants, with an eye on building a sustainable dental system that is accessible to all ugandans. This year’s symposium will be held virtually in the late spring with an additional symposium planned for 2022.

Build Your Smile also works in Toronto, providing dental care to residents at Street haven at the crossroads, a shelter and support for homeless women and survivors of abuse. Barzilay and a team of hygienists, dental assistants and volunteer dentists and specialists from prosthodontic associates in Toronto “create smiles for this population, so they can feel comfortable returning to work and the community,” says Barzilay, who heads mt. Sinai hospital’s Division of prosthodontics and restorative Dentistry in Toronto. Due to cOViD-19, care at Street haven has been “scaled back,” although patients are seen on an emergency basis. another group of Torontonians who have come under the care of Build Your Smile are holocaust survivors. Barzilay teams up, once again, with prosthodontic associates to provide care, including dentures and implants, at no cost to these octogenarians and nonagenarians. “These people are at the end of their lives, with some amazingly vibrant and healthy. They need to be able to smile,” Barzilay says.

Despite cOViD-19, Build Your Smile is extending its reach even further this year to other needy groups in Ontario as well as other countries. “i’m surrounded by good people willing to help,” Barzilay says.

Barzilay is feeling optimistic about this coming year, despite another cOViD-19 wave threatening on the horizon. The dental community on the whole has adopted enhanced safety protocols and improved personal protective Equipment (ppE), which has allowed for work to be on the rise once again both privately and with volunteer initiatives, Barzilay says. “We have developed safe methods and a very secure environment. i don’t believe there has been a case of cOViD-19 in Ontario that was contracted because of a dental procedure.”

Quality ppE and rigorous safety procedures only came into effect after cOViD-19’s virulence became apparent, and Barzilay knows several colleagues who contracted the disease early last year. This emphasizes the need for individuals to continue to stay within their social bubbles, and ensure they are cognizant of measures to preserve the safety and good health of others, whether that’s family or strangers, says Barzilay an adventurer who loves, when not under cOViD-19 restrictions, to travel to places like the North and South poles. “When someone close to you gets cOViD, it makes the whole situation very real. Be patient and this will all be over soon.”

“I’m surrounded by good people willing to help,” says Dr. Izchak Barzilay of his continued work to rebuild people’s smiles and provide dental care