Dental team to aid area youths

Hundreds of Washington County children with unmet dental needs will receive free, chance‑of‑a‑lifetime care when a visiting team from the New York University College of Dentistry descends on Machias during one week in October.
Area adults who have gone without regular dental care can also take advantage of the windfall program, according to Washington County Children's Program leaders who are coordinating the project. "This is just an amazing gift," says Teresa Alley, who has worked as WCCP's oral health coordinator since 2003.
The children's program is known for its traveling "Tooth Ferry" van that sets up at 30 elementary schools across the county each school year and provides dental hygiene for 3,000 students. Now WCCP is working with New York University College of Dentistry, Caring Hands of Maine and the Washington Hancock Community Agency to offer as many as 500 free appointments, most of them for children.
With parents' permission, the New York dentists will provide students with complete dental care during normal school hours for the week of October 4‑9. Adult patients will be seen during walk‑in hours at the clinic, which will take place in the expansive Lee Pellon Center in Machias.
The New York University dentists connected with the Washington County Children's Program on the recommendation a year ago of Dr. Timothy Oh, an Ellsworth dentist with Caring Hands of Maine. The traveling program, in place for 15 years, goes to sites where demographic studies show that dental care is lacking.
The New York dentists will return to Washington County for a second week of free clinic work in April 2011.
The goal of the October 4‑9 program is to serve children and others who don't have regular access to dental treatment and prevention. The hope is that waiting lists that several area dental providers are experiencing can be reduced.
The clinic will be closed entirely on Thursday, October 7, before reopening again for Friday and Saturday clients.
The services offered for children include dental examinations, fluoride varnish, sealants, fillings, extractions, stainless steel crowns and X‑rays. The clinic is intended for those who don't already have a family dentist.
For adults, the clinic offers emergency care, including examinations, X‑rays, sealants, fillings, root canals, or extractions. Adult patients will be seen on a walk‑in basis, first‑come, first‑served.
All the costs for clinic visits are covered. Children and adults both are asked to arrive with their MaineCare information, if they use that service. Those with no insurance will not be turned away.
All students from the Rose M. Gaffney School in Machias will see the dentists by appointments, as will youngsters from the eight HeadStart programs around the county. Students of all ages from other schools will be seen as walk‑ins during the day C with evenings set aside for adults.
With offices and professional space in Marshfield, WCCP has worked with Washington County children with special needs for 35 years.
"This project will mean so much to Washington County," says Jen Wood, WCCP's community education coordinator. "We find pockets of unmet needs, and we do the best we can to find a funding source and meet those needs. This [pediatric dentistry] is just one piece of what we've done creatively for many years."