North Liberty veteran all smiles after free dental care

CORALVILLE - An Eastern Iowa veteran is smiling a little bigger after getting $4,000 worth of free dental care Tuesday afternoon.

David Meagan, 69, of North Liberty received the free dental work from Aspen Dental in Coralville as part of a larger initiative by the company to offer dental care to veterans and those who lack access to such services.

'I was just shocked when they offered to do this work for me, I was humbled, their kindness has been really fantastic,” said Meagan, who served in the Army and also worked as a Coralville police officer for more than two decades.

'I know it's just a drop in the bucket, but it feels really good to give back to someone who really truly deserves it,” said Dr. Scott Lopshire, who performed the oral procedure on Meagan Tuesday.

Meagan was selected for the additional service after attending Aspen Dental's National Day of Service in June. In all, more than 3,500 veterans at 300 clinics across 31 states took part in the event, which offered free dental service to veterans, according to the company's website.

'We wanted to pick a patient and do more,” said Lopshire. 'There's an access to care problem with dentistry throughout the country and one of the big things we saw is our veterans, a great deal of them, weren't able to get the care they needed.”

Meagan said he expects the procedure with allow him to speak better, eat better and smile bigger.