Small Smiles Dental Centers

Small Smiles Dental Centers is a privately owned US chain of dental clinics focused on serving children from low-income families. As of March 2014 Small Smiles has 53 offices, and it says that it serves hundreds of thousands of children annually. The parent company, Church Street Health Management (CSHM), has its headquarters in Suite 520 of the Castner-Knott Building in Nashville, Tennessee. As of 2010 Church Street (previously known as Forba Holdings LLC or FORBA) is the largest dental management company in the United States. Small Smiles is the largest dental chain for children in the United States.

Throughout the chain's history, it faced accusations of providing unnecessary dental care and improper restraint of child patients. In January 2010, it gained national attention when FORBA settled False Claims Act allegations with the United States Department of Justice. As of January 1, 2011 FORBA changed its name to its current name, Church Street Health Management. The new name is a reference to the street address of the company's corporate headquarters.

Small Smiles clinics operate under multiple names. They include Children's Dental Clinic, Indian Springs Dental Clinic, Oklahoma Smiles, Small Smiles Dentistry, Texas Smiles, and Wild Smiles.

Small Smiles originated from a dental office that was opened in 1928 in Pueblo, Colorado. Initially Small Smiles was a family-owned business headed by the Italian American DeRose family of Pueblo and a Denver, Colorado dentist named Dr. William Mueller. Bruno DeRose, the founder of the practice, had graduated from dental school in 1928. The DeRose Dental Clinic opened that year. In 1961 Edward DeRose, the father of Michael DeRose who was nicknamed "Spaghetti Eddie," began practicing dentistry. After Medicaid was established in 1967, the Pueblo DeRose office was one of the first ones to accept Medicaid. Michael DeRose, a graduate of the Creighton University dental school who was nicknamed "Meatball Mike," began practicing at Small Smiles in 1982. According to Michael DeRose, Dan DeRose provided some management and marketing services. Mueller and Adolph Padula, an uncle of Michael DeRose, each had some financial interest in some clinics.

...
Wikipedia