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Slaton veteran receives dental work through Smiles for Soldiers

Lubbock Avalanche-Journal - 1/18/2022

Nellie Hopson of Slaton found the Hill & Ioppolo Oral and Dental Implant Surgery of Lubbock's fifth Smiles for Soldiers program while scrolling her Facebook page, she decided to fill out the application in hopes to regain her self-confidence through her smile.

Hopson, a 68-year-old U.S. Army veteran and nurse who has extensive tooth loss, was the final recipient of the program and received her life-changing surgery on Tuesday.

Nellie was selected late last year based upon a variety of criteria, including medical history, dental history and the need for the procedure, Oral Surgeon Dr. Robert Ioppolo said.

"She was a good candidate for the procedure, and it was one of those things when visiting with her is exactly what she was looking for, everything matched up to where the the procedure, our criterion and selection process and her needs were all kind of aligned, so it made perfect sense for us to do this for her," Ioppolo said.

Ioppolo said the procedure usually takes about four hours, but when you think about it, versus coming back and forth several times to an office to have multiple procedures over the course of many months, to do it in four hours is amazing.

And this is something that they couldn't do as recently as about 15 years ago, he said, as it's a fairly new procedure but has show to have about a 95% success rate in nonsmoking and non-diabetic patients.

"These procedures, when they're indicated, for a patient can really be life changing because it's something that would normally take months and months of surgery upon surgery, one after another, in order to get this accomplished. And now it can be done again in a day," Ioppolo said. "And I think that makes a big difference for a lot of folks."

Ioppolo said that oral health, in addition to being important just for function and the aesthetics of having a pretty smile and the ability to chew and eat whatever type of food you may want, there is a direct link to cardiovascular health. Maintaining a patient's oral health is important in order to prevent cardiothoracic problems, he said.

"I was very excited, very excited when they told me that I was one. I knew that I would never be able to afford anything like this, as a veteran, we don't get any, any kind of dental benefits after we leave," Hopson said.

Hopson said getting up in front of people and talking to people has been hard and she has been self-conscious, but now she feels that the surgery will make her comfortable and confident.

"I feel like it's going to make me a whole new person - it's going to make me into the person I used to be when I first started as a nurse," she said.

Hopson added that everybody, from the very first minute she walked into the clinic, was very welcoming and she knew that it was going to be a wonderful experience.

"Dr. Ioppolo is just t so comforting, and he makes me feel secure and I know that I'm in good hands," Hopson said.

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