Summit’s Hayley Quartuccio seemingly can’t comprehend doing the bare minimum. 

When it came to completing the educational hours required by the Colorado Dental Board to practice dentistry, she clocked in five times the amount of hours required. 

When she took over Ten Mile Dental in Frisco at the tail end of 2022, acclimating to being a business owner wasn’t enough. Approximately a year into ownership, she decided to take on another huge lift — sending her employees to help hundreds living in the mountains of Guatemala. 

At the beginning of June, Quartuccio and her employees arrived in San Martín Jilotepeque, Guatemala and served an estimated 600 patients in six days. 

This was the second time Quartuccio had been to Guatemala to provide dental services. Her graduate school at the University of Colorado sent her in years prior, and she said it was such an impactful experience that she wanted to share it with her team at Ten Mile Dental. 

Upon arriving in San Martín Jilotepeque, her team was met with the local community liaison, Cristy Velasco, who also seemingly refuses to do the bare minimum. Velasco plays a key role in getting locals dental service by coordinating with Global Dental Relief, the organization Ten Mile Dental did its trip through. Quartuccio said Velasco works with local officials to not just get the people living in San Martín Jilotepeque services, but surrounding communities as well. 

Additionally, Velasco owns a restaurant, Full Moon Cafe, and runs a rescue for the area’s street dogs that features a free spay and neuter clinic. 

“We still can’t stop talking about her and all she does,” Quartuccio said.

Once Velasco helped the group get a lay of the land, they immediately started work with the goal to get as much done as they could. 

Helping as many people as possible meant the Ten Mile Dental staff was working at a much quicker pace then they were accustomed to. 

“I have never turned a chair over faster in my life,” Ten Mile Dental’s Tagan Nowicki said, noting she was limited to spending under 30-40 minutes with each patient. 

Nowicki — who like everyone else was a big fan of Velasco and still messages her on Facebook —described the trip to be one of the best experiences of her life and said she would go in a heartbeat if offered the opportunity again. 

Nowicki and Quartuccio both said they were taken aback by the gratitude of the people they helped, who they said swung by the clinic multiple times afterward to check in, and the welcoming nature of the San Martín Jilotepeque locals.

“Even just walking around the town, little kids come out from their shops or their house and want to say, ‘Hi.’ … People would just come up to us and ask how we were liking their town,” Quartuccio.

Quartuccio said she wished more people knew about the work the Global Dental Relief does. 

“One of the biggest things of why I wanted to work with them was they continue to go back to the same community over and over again, like they’ve been going to this clinic in Guatemala for 15 years,” Quartuccio said, noting the organization’s mission to have lasting impacts on communities.

The organization estimates it helps 22,400 children each year by providing oral health instruction during a clinic visit. It is currently doing work in Nepal, Cambodia, and Guatemala and estimates it is reaching 29,000 children with classroom education and care.

To learn more visit GlobalDentalRelief.org/our-work/our-work/.