A Smile That Lights a Path to the Future

Every child who walks into Rifkin Raanan Cosmetic Dentistry on a clinic day gets what the Beverly Hills clientele gets all week: the top-floor view, the bright, open operatory, and two of the best dentists in the city. The only difference is the bill. There isn’t one.

Giving A Smile Foundation was started in 2017 by brothers Dr. Rodney Raanan and Dr. Justin Raanan, who run practices across the hall from each other. Both had done international dental missions and wanted the same impact at home. “Our parents instilled in us the importance of giving back,” Rodney says. 

The foundation runs quarterly free clinics for patients ages 5 to 24, referred by partners like the Boys & Girls Club of West San Gabriel Valley and staffed by volunteer dentists and UCLA dental students. Patients get X-rays, an exam, and a treatment plan, and the work begins that day: cleanings, fillings, extractions, wisdom teeth. Many patients are foster youth or young adults who have aged out of the system. The foundation also takes on complex full-mouth reconstruction cases that can represent hundreds of thousands of dollars in donated dental care.

“What do you see, what do you smell, what do you hear, what do you feel when you come into a dental office?” asks Chelsea Mitchell, who runs the foundation’s operations. Giving A Smile tries to ensure that all of those experiences are positive. Clinic days include breakfast and lunch, a craft table, puppet shows, and doctors who explain every step. “No red tape, no delay,” she says.

Life-Changing Dental Care

Rodney remembers a boy, Tyler (not his real name), aged six or seven, getting a brushing lesson. Asked how often he’d brush, Tyler said, “I’m going to try to brush twice,” following Dr. Raanan’s instructions. You don’t try, Rodney told him, you do. Tyler looked at his mother, then at the doctor. “Sometimes we don’t make it into the shelter,” he said. “There’s nowhere I can brush.” His mother began to cry. “Please don’t cry,” Tyler told her. “I have everything I need.” “My heart dropped a thousand pounds,” Rodney says. “That’s a moment I’ll carry with me forever.”

Then there’s Muriel (not her real name), who arrived in her early twenties. A survivor of human trafficking, she had root stumps where her teeth had been and wouldn’t make eye contact. After bone grafts and implants done by Justin and a full restoration by Rodney, Rodney handed her the mirror. “The first thing I saw was a tear,” he says. Soon she was talking. She got a job, went back to school, went to prom. “She felt for the first time that she fit in,” Rodney says. “That’s priceless to me.”

Next: a permanent five-day-a-week clinic, the focus of the November gala. “We want everybody who needs to get here to be able to get here,” Mitchell says.