Dr. Tu Tran and Dr. Thein Pham were top dentist's at Smile High clinic in Denver, owned and operated by Eddie, Michael and Dan DeRose where they learned the DeRose Way of spreading dental services to the underserved.
When they broke out on their own, they began with 1 clinic in 2002 and by December 2003 there were three clinics in Georgia.
After 2003 things took off. By January 2006 the Kool Smiles clinic count had jumped to 14 clinics. In January 2007 there were 29 clinics and by July of 2007 there were 36.
I know this by using the wayback machine and checking the old copies of the website.
According to what I can find, there are somewhere around 100 clinics across the US, which beats Small Smiles, so they can shut up about being the "Largest" ...unless they mean dirty rotten scoundrels....
From 2005 until March 2010 either Tran, Strange, Pham, Kool Smiles clinics, their funding source, NCDR, LLC, DPMS, Inc or Friedman, Fleischer and Lowe have made over $62,000 in campaign donations.
According to my research, Georgia State Representative Michele Henson (D) (District 87) is the big winner at over $10,000. Rep. Henson took office in 1991 and is on the Appropriations and HHS committees.
State Sen. Greg Goggans (R) (District 7) comes in second at $8,300. Senator Goggans is a dentist and is Secretary of Heath and Human Services Committee as well as Secretary and Treasurer of Southwestern District Dental Association.
$10,000 was donated to a PAC and the rest of the money was distributed among other state lawmakers.
