A Fresno dental center is taking applications from college students and their parents to receive free surgery to ease the financial burden of their academic expenses

The program, Wisdom for Wisdom, is being launched by the Fresno Oral Maxillofacial Surgery & Dental Implant Center. Through this program, the center will remove the wisdom teeth of one student — meant to offset the cost of the student’s textbooks or class fees.

“When we give this gift to a student, they will use the money they would have spent for this procedure on their textbooks,” Dr. Ardavan Kheradpir said. “It is our way of putting to use our years of schooling in a way that helps future students to achieve their dreams, like we were lucky enough to achieve ours.”

The application period ends on July 12. To apply, students and their parents have been asked to write a short essay and complete a quiz after watching an instructional video found at the practice’s website. The practice will announce the recipient and update the public on its Facebook page.

“No student should have a poorer education just because they cannot afford their textbooks,” added Dr. Allen Chien. “We wanted to create a program that would really support local students and their goals to achieve success in higher education.”

Fresno Oral Maxillofacial Surgery & Dental Implant Center is located at 7025 N. Maple Ave. in northeast Fresno. It also has offices in Clovis, Reedley and Madera.