Editor’s note — Recently, we invited readers to send in their nominations for “Herald Heroes,” an effort to recognize the heroics of people doing great things behind the scenes. We then pursued the nearly impossible task of winnowing the list to five finalists and one winner among them. In the coming weeks, we will feature a different finalist each Sunday, acknowledging the good work they’ve contributed on behalf of our community and finishing with a feature on our winning Herald Hero, who will receive a $500 award.

When he’s not working at his own dentistry clinic, Dr. Joshua Sanchez spends his Fridays in Marina working at the nonprofit Dentistry4Vets clinic. It’s something he’s done for the past three and a half years.

Sanchez’s dad is in law enforcement and many of his dad’s friends were also in law enforcement and ex-military.

“I’ve always had a sense of gratitude to those who either have served our country or serve our communities,” he said. “I feel it’s such a wonderful thing to do and I want to honor that. Being a part of this program is a way I can express that gratitude.”

Dentistry4Vets, which opened about six years ago, is a full comprehensive care clinic at a significantly reduced cost for veterans — the only one like it in the United States. In 2024, they provided over 2,000 appointments to the veteran population.

“If they’re homeless or they can’t afford to pay, we just take care of them. We’re just trying to keep the lights on. Dentistry’s expensive, but we do quality care,” Sanchez said. “A lot of veterans who come here for work … but they donate too, and they come here because they want to support our program. It’s like veterans helping veterans and then we do what we can to bridge that gap as well.”

Sanchez was nominated by Dentistry4Vets’ co-founder Patricia Yellich, who said “the kindness and wholehearted compassion that Dr. Sanchez imparts on our patients is unique to Dr. Sanchez … He is a leader within our organization and a champion for veteran dental care in our community.”

Sanchez used to be an associate doctor in Watsonville, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there was a slowdown in dentistry and he was only able to work a few days a week. His wife was pregnant with their first daughter at the time, and Sanchez was looking to pick up a couple of extra shifts each week.

That’s when Sanchez found Dentistry4Vets and stepped into the role of clinical director of the program.

“ I just fell in love with the patient care here,” he said. “Practicing dentistry in a way that focuses just on the care and not like metrics is just a nice, refreshing change of pace.”

Then Sanchez had the opportunity to buy his own practice off a handshake from the doctor he had done his associateship with. He helped Sanchez get his office up and running in Soquel, while Sanchez and his wife bought and began renovating a trailer with a nursery.

During the floods in 2022, the trailer was ruined by black mold.

“ My wife and I ended up living in that back office on an air mattress for six months while we built our office up and we started from scratch with no money. It took like 10 months to even get a micro loan because nobody was giving loans at this time for practices.

“ We cooked in there. We bathed our daughter in the sink. We made do and it really taught us a lot,” he said. “ I didn’t want to let go of that business, so we sunk everything into it.”

His wife worked as their receptionist and it was just Sanchez working in the back, but now they have 10 staff members, “ but we really had to put some heart into it.”

Through all that, Sanchez stayed working at Dentistry4Vets.

“ I feel this is a critical part to my professional happiness. For the rest of my career, I wanna be part of this program. I’m part of the board now, so I can make some suggestions on how the program proceeds forward and grows and I’m really happy,” he said. “I’m really proud to be a part of this program.”

“ I love coming here at the end of my week. I’m excited to come here with the staff and we have a great staff here,” he said. “We make veterans feel welcome and just as soon as they come in, we’re all smiles, laughing, joking, I’m blasting ‘60s’, ‘70s’ rock in here. They just feel at home here and I’m really happy to be a part of that.”

While the dentist is infamously scary, Sanchez and the team at Dentistry4Vets have worked hard to make all their patients feel comfortable.

“ What we do is that we approach every patient with empathy and care,” said Sanchez. “ We get to know our patients on a personal level.”

Sanchez said this is a practice he carries over into his private office as well.

“So I don’t see patients. We make friends, we make connections with everybody in here because I feel unless they really trust you, you can’t really care for them fully,” he said. “So just knowing that a lot of these patients maybe have PTSD or they have physical disabilities, they got in service or later in life too, we just can accommodate all that and they feel the love from this nonprofit.”

As a full-service dental office open five days a week, Dentistry4Vets does everything from implants to root canals to cleanings. Sanchez said there’s really no such thing as a typical day in dentistry, especially working with veterans, but that’s why he loves the work he does.

“ I’m here Fridays for the crazy hard cases. Just pitch ‘em to me, like I wanna see the stuff that makes me scared,” he said with a laugh. “It’s funny ‘cause even at 37 I don’t feel old, but I have some experience and residency especially helped prepare me for that, so I can see some more complex cases.”

He said he may see someone for something as routine as a filling, or someone who just got into an accident and is in need of more complex repairs.

“ There’s a lot of veterans who come here that tell me ‘I haven’t seen a dentist since Vietnam. Doc, patch me up,’ and they’re missing most of their teeth,” he said. “ But we pull off miracles here. It just takes a little longer.”

Sanchez recalled a story of a Vietnam combat veteran he has previously worked with. His teeth were ground down, but Sanchez was able to give him implants. While the patient has since moved to Florida, he still periodically calls Sanchez to express his thanks.

Sanchez also shared that one of his patients has severe PTSD and is disabled.

“ When I first met him, he had substance abuse problems, but he had a bad toothache,” Sanchez said. “He just popped in one day and when I see people in pain, I will go out of my way to help them. It’s why I got into health care, I really wanna help people.”

Now, Sanchez and the team at Dentistry4Vets have his full trust. Sanchez said there are many other stories like his.

Another patient, Sanchez said, took a year before they could do treatment. He was told by another dentist he couldn’t be helped, so he didn’t go back to any dentist. Sanchez was able to fully restore his teeth with a few crowns, no implants.

A majority of his work is done pro bono, Sanchez said.

“ I wrote a letter to the founders that said, ‘we really need to help this guy. I really want to help him, can we do something? Can we write some stuff off?’ And we ended up doing that. He didn’t have a lot of means at the time and I felt inside me, we really had to help this person,” he said. “There’s a few veterans, I’ve written letters to the founders saying, ‘hey, this is why this person deserves this care.’

“ It’s just a wonderful program. It’s so cool,” Sanchez said. “I can’t say enough good things about this place.”

While other clinics may offer free or reduced cost dental care to veterans, Dentistry4Vets is the only clinic in the states with a full-time commitment to veterans.

“ A lot of places will do like one day a year, but we aim to give veterans care 365. Whenever they need us, we’re here as their dental home,” said Sanchez. “It’s a commitment to dental care for the veteran community. As far as we can see, there’s nothing else like it in the country.

“ We hope to be a model for other pilots like this all across the country to help veterans.”

Sanchez said the VA wants to get an idea of what it would cost and look like to provide veterans with general dental care throughout the country. Dentistry4Vets is hopefully going to become a pilot for that program.

“ If that happens and we get enough support in Congress and all this stuff, Dentistry4Vets could potentially be a nationwide program in the next 10 years,” he said. “I wouldn’t be surprised if it spread all over California in different spots just dedicated to veterans where a majority of veterans live.”

Sanchez said while obviously Monterey, Santa Cruz and San Benito Counties all have large veteran populations, he would love to see the program spread to San Diego and other places where veterans live and “ provide the same quality of care at a much reduced rate for all veterans. So that’s the goal. This is what we’re hoping for.”

Dentistry4Vets means so much to Sanchez, he said it was hard to put into words.

“ I put my heart and soul in here … I think being able to practice dentistry in a way where you are really trying to make a difference, not only in their lives but in our community, I think that’s the biggest thing for me,” he said. “ We have a large veteran community here, and just being able to feel like I’m making a difference and helping is a wonderful feeling. I love doing it, and I want to make this part of my career for the rest of my life.”