Volunteer dentists paying it forward
By Brenda Bernet
Source: http://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2016/jan/03/homegrown-dentist-gives-back-to-fayette/?f=news-arkansas
Through Osborne, she learned of the Fayetteville Youth Dental Program and decided to volunteer. She likes providing children with access to dental care and supporting students who are interested in the dental health field, she said.
"I've always wanted to come back here and serve my community," she said. "This is home."
The Fayetteville Youth Dental Program, established more than 50 years ago, began as a joint effort of the Altrusa Club of Fayetteville, Fayetteville School District and local dentists, said Glenda Lee, a dental assistant who serves as the program director.
The program has changed over the years and now is supported with a grant from the Delta Dental of Arkansas Foundation, Lee said. The program is connected to a Northwest Arkansas Community College dental assisting program for high school students through Northwest Technical Institute and five volunteer dentists, including Waselues, who work with patients on Fridays at clinics, Lee said. The clinics are offered from September through May. About a dozen patients are treated at each one.
Other dentists do specialty work in their offices. The program partners with the Altrusa Club on special projects.
The program's offices are on the Agee-Lierly Life Preparation Services campus at 2350 Old Farmington Road, Lee said.
Students eligible for services are from low-income families and are referred by nurses, principals or teachers, Lee said. Students often are identified during health fairs and health screenings.
Dr. Henry Matthews moved to Fayetteville 29 years ago to work for the late Dr. Ernest Stanbury, who was one of the program's founding dentists with Dr. Jim Hunt and the late Dr. Jacob Agee. Stanbury required Matthews to volunteer, a service Matthews continues to support, he said. He is the advisory board president for the program.
"A lot of young kids had really bad dental health and were coming to school sick with abscesses," Matthews said. "It kind of evolved into what we have today. Not only are we providing care for the indigent children, we're teaching young students."
Lee, a Fayetteville High School graduate in the class of 1981, was in the dental assisting program as a high school student, she said. She worked as a dental assistant for different offices. She has directed the dental program for almost 20 years.
Waselues did not know about the program in high school, she said. Since becoming a volunteer dentist, she has participated in three Friday clinics and has conducted dental screenings.
Waselues' interest in taking care of people developed through some personal experiences, including an injury she experienced when she was 9, she said. She was injured one January day while sledding. She hit her sister's sled and broke her two front teeth, which ended up in the shape of half moons, she said.
She remembers telling her mother, "I knocked out all my permanents."
Her mother called a family dentist, who agreed to meet them at his office despite some icy roads, she said. She remembers the dentist asking her questions and making sure she didn't have any other injuries.
"He really took his time to take care of me," said Waselues, who now has two veneers on her front teeth.
She remembers shadowing Matthews for two days during an eighth-grade career exploration class. In ninth grade, Waselues needed dental surgery to remove a couple of baby teeth and pull down her permanent teeth.
"I wasn't the most attractive ninth-grader," she said. "Afterward, my smile looked good. That can do a lot, especially for a kid if you're making your smile better."
She initially thought of going into the field of physical therapy, but her dentist while she was in college, Dr. Rebecca Lucke, asked about her interests and was compassionate and empathetic with patients. Lucke inspired Waselues to choose dentistry and became her mentor.
When she applied to dental school, Waselues wrote about her interest in being involved in a program providing dental care for children who couldn't afford it, she said. Friday clinics with the Fayetteville Youth Dental Program give her a chance to do that.
When she works with children who are patients, Waselues tries to put them at ease. She tells them the tapping on their teeth is like someone dancing. She uses funny names for dental tools, such as calling suction tool "Mr. Thirsty."
"I try to be very positive with them and make them feel good about it," she said.
Metro on 01/03/2016
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