I stopped by the McMicken Dental Center for the Homeless looking for a happy ending.

The center, at 40 E. McMicken in Over-the-Rhine, is a 2-year-old godsend to thousands who can't afford dental care unless it's free. Every year, more than 10,000 Cincinnati-area residents seek urgent dental care from overwhelmed city clinics and hospital emergency rooms.

Tuesday, the McMicken Center received $123,000 from a group of women philanthropists called Impact 100.

The facility, which helps 3,000 to 3,500 homeless people regain their smiles each year, has been working with donated, 20-year-old equipment. It's so bad that the only dentist and several hygienists on staff regularly repair or rejigger equipment just to keep it working.

Some of the equipment has caught fire. Recently, a light fell and was caught just before it hit a patient's head.

A smile's strength

The Impact 100 donation will buy new dental stations, instruments, equipment and a safer environment for the next 20 years. It'll mean the center can accommodate the dentists who've lined up to volunteer their services.

And it'll mean Dr. Judith Allen, the staff dentist, can continue adding to her photo albums.

As a dentist formerly in private practice, Dr. Allen knows the marketing value of "before" and "after" photos.

The pictures she takes of her homeless clients could sell the hardest heart on free mouth care for the poor.

In "before" shots, the toothless, or near toothless, young people look like old people. In the "after" shots, they're transformed into glowing examples of health and vitality. All it took was a repair of their smile.

Some clients, from the look of their "before" photos, would have caused me to walk on the other side of the street. Their teeth were badly damaged or diseased; some of their mouths were deformed and bloody.

But after dental work they look fine, employable, like upstanding members of the community. They could be child care workers, sales representatives or marketing executives. A few even looked like models. The staff even calls one young man "our Brad Pitt" now.

Robert McGonagle's new smile has transformed his life.

The church caretaker was intoxicated 33 of his 48 years of life, he says. Three years ago he was imprisoned for his ninth and 10th DUI conviction.

Gaining hope

One night while free, he was assaulted by a bottle-wielding bar patron who cut up his mouth, sheering off parts of his teeth and part of his thumb.

For more than a year, Mr. McGonagle says, he avoided meeting other people's eyes.

He mumbled into his hands, hid his mouth when he talked. A self-described cocky, macho drunk, he was suddenly a man with no self-esteem and no home.

But faith in God, help from shelters and friends, and prodding from a court helped convince him to clean up. He approached Dr. Allen for dental help, and she made a deal with him: If he would stay sober for several months, she'd get him a new set of front teeth.

He went sober that day, he says, and the dental work followed.

Now his smile is white, even, healthy and nearly constant.

Mr. McGonagle says he's sober and spends his free time being "a professional volunteer," giving back to people who've helped him.

At the dental clinic, he weekly cleans and waxes the floors and performs other custodial duties.

Dr. Allen estimates he donated at least $30,000 worth of work last year.

"These women don't just touch your mouths, they touch your heart, so you know you're not hopeless," Mr. McGonagle says of the dental staff.

E-mail damos@enquirer.com or phone 768-8395