Dentists probably pulled at least 600 teeth at UAB's Community Day on Thursday, said Dentistry School Dean Michael Reddy, and three of them belonged to Meade Frierson.
Frierson had two roots and one tooth pulled during the event, where volunteers and students come together to provide free dental care to people with limited incomes and no insurance. Dentists offered basic services such as cleanings, fillings and extractions at UAB and two other locations. Many of those who visited the clinic came to have teeth removed, Reddy said.
Frierson lives in a shelter and hadn't seen a dentist since 1997. Although his teeth hadn't been causing him any pain, the broken teeth created other problems.
The extractions will allow him to get fitted for dentures, Frierson said. Over the years, he has lost so many teeth he can barely eat solid food.
"I have one tooth I can chew with," he said. "With the dentures, I'll be able to chew again."
Throughout the day, students at UAB's Dental School worked alongside faculty members and dentists from the community to clean, remove or fill the teeth of about 550 patients at all three sites.
Vans and buses delivered patients from shelters and churches.
People came from as far away as Uniontown in Marengo County, including Clementine Turner, 60, who woke at 5:45 a.m. to catch the bus to UAB.
First she stopped at triage, where second-year dental student Mac Hendrix took her blood pressure, health history and checked her teeth.Turner walked through a welcome tent erected in the middle of 7th Ave. South at about 10:30 a.m., then passed into the lobby of the dental school. She received a numbered folder and moved to the waiting room.
"Are you having any pain?" Hendrix asked.
"No, everything feels good," Turner said.
But the student found two trouble spots – softness and decay in a couple of teeth that would probably require fillings.
After supervising dentist Dr. Diane Feagin confirmed the diagnosis, the pair sent Turner to have an X-ray.
Turner had four teeth pulled during last year's Community Day, but this year, dentists felt they could save both teeth. After her X-ray, Turner went upstairs to restoration – where patients waited in chairs amid the background hum of dental drills.
After about an hour wait, Dr. James Sanderson settled Turner in a chair and quickly went to work, drawing up a dose of lidocaine to numb her teeth. Sanderson has a practice in Hoover, but has volunteered at Community Day in all three years since it started.
Dr. Conan Davis, a professor at the dental school and Chair of UAB Dentistry Cares, said the event not only provides dental care for adults in need – it also raises awareness of the lack of resources for low-income adults. Alabama is one of just six states that provide no dental coverage for adults on Medicaid, according to the National Academy for State Health Policy.
Although there are a handful of clinics that provide low-cost dental care, there are not enough resources for adults who can't afford dental care, Davis said.
"We know there are associations between things like periodontal disease and heart disease," Davis said. "It can impact health in a lot of ways."
Turner suffered for years with pain in her teeth, but couldn't afford to pay $175 per tooth to have them pulled by a dentist in Uniontown. She hadn't seen a dentist in 10 years when she arrived at Community Day last year.
Edwina Taylor runs a low-cost dental clinic on the weekends for Cahaba Valley Health Care. She has met patients who have been to the ER several times with abscessed teeth, but no means to pay for their removal. At least one of them made an appointment at Community Day to have his bad tooth checked and pulled, she said.
"There are people who have been waiting for years to get their teeth fixed," Taylor said.
Turner said she struggled with dental problems for years before she came to UAB last year. Instead of being nervous at the prospect of having her teeth pulled, she was excited.
"I was relaxed," she said, "because I was so excited to get it over with."
Source: http://www.al.com/news/birmingham/index.ssf/2015/10/uabs_free_dental_event_draws_m.html
In other dental news: Aurident's 3D dental scanners offer superior quality for both model and impression scanning. The Optimet DS 6000 Scanner uses patented proprietary conoscopic holographic technology to generate highly accurate and consistent scans. The DSi 6000 Impression & Model Scanner overcomes the limitation of other scanners by accurately scanning impressions and models where other scanners have difficulty.
No comments:
Post a Comment