A dental office in east Wichita is offering a free dental procedure for veterans who can not afford it. 

Dr. M. Dean Wright and his staff are patriotic, and show this every Friday by wearing red at the office. But they wanted to do more. 

"We do a special procedure where we attach somebody's dentures to a small mini-type implant," Wright said Wednesday. "It's a wonderful procedure. We've done thousands of them over the last 15 years. So we said, 'That's our niche. That's the thing that we are confident with. Let's look at doing that.'"

Adding the mini-implants to the lower denture increases the ability to eat from 30 to 90 percent. It's a procedure most veterans with dentures are not able to get. 

"A lot of these veterans aren't covered by the VA," Wright said. "They don't have a very strong dental program for them. At best, they might get a set of dentures, if that, but they would never get an implant system like this to really improve their quality of life."

Wright hopes that offering this procedure will also inspire others to help servicemen and women in need.

"It's a small thing to do. But then again, what if everybody would do something small for our veterans? It would get gigantic, and we need to take care of those people who have taken care of us in the past," Wright said.  

If you are a veteran, or know a veteran who could benefit from this procedure, you can contact Cambridge Family Dentistry at (316) 687-2110.