It was a pleasant and exciting evening recently at the Eko Hotels Convention Centre, Victoria Island, Lagos, when the 2018 Nigerian Healthcare Excellence Awards (NHEA) held at the venue. Smile 360, a leading dental and orthodontic clinic, won the award for Dental Service Provider of the Year. It was the fourth consecutive time that Smile 360 would be winning the award.

Described as a dental clinic with the best in terms of equipment and personnel, Smile 360 has Dr. Amy Traore-Shumbusho, who holds a PhD in orthodontics, as managing director.

NHEA is an initiative of Global Health Project and Resources (GHPR), in collaboration with Anadach Group, USA. GHPR is a leading healthcare management and consultancy company in West Africa.

The NHEA is an annual event that celebrates outstanding personalities and organisations that have contributed to the health sector through innovative, efficient and qualitative healthcare service. The award for Smile 360, according to the organisers, was to celebrate the clinic for its outstanding service in the industry.

Traore-Shumbusho came on stage with some of her team members to receive the award. She said: “On behalf of the Smile 360 team, I, Dr. Amy Traore-Shumbusho, would like to use this medium to thank our lovers and supporters for helping us bring the NHEA 2018 Dental Service Provider of the Year award home.

“I can’t aptly express the fulfilment, but I just want you all to know we profoundly appreciate this. This marks our fourth consecutive win, and it says a lot about our efforts and contributions to dentistry in the country.”

Since the event, a number of eminent personalities within and outside the country have also been congratulating the operators of the clinic.

Traore-Shumbusho noted that the clinic’s most important goal was the unwavering effort to change the perception of dentition in Nigeria and Africa at large.

Many people have praised the medical director for sustaining the excellence that the clinic has been noted for. Indeed, many have lauded Traore-Shumbusho, describing her as a round peg in a round hole. After qualifying as a dentist, it was gathered, she decided to specialise in orthodontics, mostly to exhibit her artistic talents. Her office was an alluring space. Its inviting atmosphere, friendly staff and glamorous lounge area easily created a feeling of ease and relaxation.

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The clinic is the first purpose-built orthodontic centre in the country, one that provides first- class treatment and service in a fully equipped, ultra-modern environment. Some of the facilities include 12 dental chairs, a children’s section, a reception and a lounge area. The clinic also boasts of a 3D X-ray and an ultra oral scanner, the only one the country.

Daily Sun learnt that one of the goals of Smile 360 is to bring the standard of dental practice in Nigeria at par with what obtains in the United States and the United Kingdom. Some of their accomplishments, for which the award was given, include teeth whitening, Hollywood smile, invisalign, digital smile design and implants, among others.

The clinic also runs an initiative called Project Smile. This seeks to identify people with flawed dentition in society and give them a chance to correct their dental defects through a smile makeover contest programme.

“As experts in oral healthcare, we have devoted our entire lives to the pursuit of creating beautiful smiles, and helping people wear great smiles they never thought they could. It is our job to change people’s lives with great smiles.

“The latest move to this new facility will enable us to see more patients, provide superior quality that you cannot find anywhere else. We want to be able to impact our society through dentistry and I feel that this new facility will allow us to do just that. So, we look forward to bringing new and old patients to experience our latest treatments and a more comfortable environment just as every member of the team at Smile360 is extremely passionate and totally committed to creating wonderful smiles for all their patients,” she said.

Meanwhile, organisers of Project Smile have restated their commitment to the mission of touching the lives of Nigerians with flawed dentition through a complimentary smile makeover programme.

The first edition was held in 2011 with Mrs. Chichi Anosike as the first beneficiary. Since then, the project has transformed over 30 lives. Project Smile 3.0 was again launched on March 20, 2015, and it planned to transform more smiles than it did in previous years.

This, according to Traore-Shumbusho, was a testament to the achievements of the initiative in the past three seasons as well as the milestones reached which indicated that the goals of the initiative were being achieved.