The University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry and the communities of Alliance and Sidney will provide free oral health care and dental education in rural Nebraska June 3 and 4.
This is the second time the College of Dentistry has taken its services to rural Nebraska. More than 150 children from a number of communities throughout the panhandle will receive free dental treatment and education at Children’s Dental Day VIII June 3 and 4 in Alliance and Sidney.
Traditionally Children’s Dental Day clinics are held at the UNMC College of Dentistry in Lincoln. The event provides an opportunity to help underserved Nebraska children and allows dental and dental hygiene students to gain clinical experience in a different environment. The children participating in this event have little or no access to dental care and have been pre-screened by a local dentist.
“The expansion of dental day to the entire panhandle is due to the overwhelming response from folks in Alliance last year,” said John Reinhardt, D.D.S., dean of the UNMC College of Dentistry. “It is also part of our commitment to make oral health accessible to all Nebraskans.”
Dental students and faculty will provide care at: Box Butte General Hospital, 2101 Box Butte Avenue and at the private dental offices of D.N. Taylor Jr., D.D.S. and Paul Maxwell Jr., D.D.S., 916 West 10th St.; Gene Giles, D.D.S., 113 East Fifth St.; and Gary Christensen, D.D.S., 2308 Box Butte Ave, all in Alliance; and at the dental offices of Drs. Bill Printz, 1340 10th Ave., and Mike Neal, 2678 11th Ave., in Sidney.
Dental hygiene students will provide care at the Burkholder Building, Sixth Street and Black Hills Avenue in Alliance. The Burkholder Building also is where lunch will be served to the children and families and it will feature a festival with educational games. Activities will take place from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on June 3 and 8:30 a.m. to noon on June 4.
Children in need of complicated procedures will again be seen at the hospital in Alliance, where dental practitioners will use videoconferencing to communicate with periodontists, oral pathologists and surgeons standing by at the dental college in Lincoln.
In conjunction with Dental Day VIII, the UNMC College of Dentistry and the Nebraska Health and Human Services System, is experimenting with a new form of extramural rotation. The purpose of this pilot rotation is to develop a service-learning project where the college works with a community to identify and meet the individual needs and goals within that community.
Two recent dental graduates and one recent dental hygiene graduate will come to the panhandle for two weeks before dental day. Dental graduates Drs. Cally Adams and Stephanie Shalberg, and dental hygiene graduate Erin Zilmer, will arrive in Alliance on May 17. The students will spend two days in Gordon, Neb., May 18 and 19, doing oral health screenings for the entire elementary school population. The rest of their time will be spent screening patients for the dental day event and providing regular dental services.
“The concept of service-learning is to meet the needs of the college and the community,” said David Brown, Ph.D., associate dean at the UNMC College of Dentistry. “It also provides the students an opportunity to work in a rural community with the hopes that the students would consider practicing in a small town after graduation.”
To take Children’s Dental Day VIII on the road, more than 75 faculty, staff and students will transport 11 portable operatories, including patient chairs, all of the instruments used for comprehensive restorative care and cleanings, as well as all the supplies needed to provide fluoride treatments, sealants and cavity fillings.
The value of care delivered at all seven dental day events held by the UNMC College of Dentistry to date totals $400,000, Dr. Brown said. The estimated value of care that will be provided at Dental Day VIII is $60,000. Dental Day is funded by donations of time, facilities and money.
Out-of-pocket expenses to fund Dental Day VIII will be $6,000, of which $3,000 will be used to transport people and equipment. Major sponsors include: Ameritas Life Insurance Company, Nebraska Health and Human Services System Office of Rural Health, The Sowers Club, Nebraska Dental Association, Nebraska Dental Hygienists Association, Patterson Dental Supply Company, Oral-B, Espe-3M, Hu-Friedy and Proctor & Gamble.
Dental hygiene students from the west division program in Gering, Neb. also will participate. They have been receiving much of their dental hygiene classroom education via videoconferencing from the College of Dentistry in Lincoln to the Panhandle Community Services Health Center in Gering.
Site coordinator is Bonnie Wallace, director of public relations and marketing for Box Butte General Hospital. She will be available to help media set up interviews and can be contacted at (308) 762-6660 or by cell phone (308) 760-1021.