Brighter Way Institute Opens the Thunderbirds Charities Institute for Implantology
This month, Brighter Way honored local philanthropists by naming the Thunderbirds Charities Institute for Implantology and the Ed Portnoy Endowment for Implantology. The celebration took place at the Diane & Bruce Halle Brighter Way Dental Center, located on the Phoenix Human Services Campus.
With 18 Thunderbirds in attendance, the organization played a lead role in supporting a $1.7 million campaign, resulting in 13 state-of-the-art dental operatories. Dr. Edmund Portnoy, a previous Brighter Way board member, was honored with the naming of the Ed Portnoy Endowment for Implantology.
Brighter Way’s implantology program kicked off in July 2022 with the nation’s only dually certified specialist in oral and maxillofacial surgery and oral and maxillofacial radiology, Dr. Todd R. Erickson.
Inspired 21 years ago by one veteran patient who received dental services, Brighter Way Institute has been on a mission to provide oral health services to veterans. From one small trailer in a field, Brighter Way now provides comprehensive, full oral health restoration to hundreds of veterans annually. Local, national and international philanthropists have stepped up to help build one of the finest, state-of-the-art nonprofit dental centers and implantology programs in the nation.
“We’re incredibly excited about this new program and the expanded services we now have the capacity to provide. This was how we can say thank you to the people who so bravely served our country and who are so badly in need of oral healthcare,” said Dr. Kris Volcheck, founding CEO of Brighter Way. “We’ve come a long way, but we still have much more to do.”
For more information about Brighter Way, visit brighterwaydental.org.
