Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota. (March 10, 2023): In this photo by Airman 1st Class Dylan Maher, Senior Airman Mikhaela Maglaque, a 28th Medical Group technician, cleans a child’s teeth during Childrens Dental Day, an annual clinic that provides free dental care for children of military servicemembers. The 28th provides outpatient medical care to 3,200 active-duty members and 17,000 beneficiaries, as well as retired personnel and their families.

The Ellsworth dental clinic provides the same high-level care as that of a civilian dental office, but the base clinic’s focus is to keep Airmen healthy and ready to fight U.S. adversaries. The clinic performs routine care such as fillings, endodontics (root canals), oral surgery such as wisdom teeth removal, crowns and bridges, and annual checkups.

The clinic’s main priority is active-duty Airmen and, though it’s relatively small, the dental team sees up to 10,000 patients per year.