Families take advantage of Give Kids a Smile Day free dental clinic at San Juan College
It didn’t take long for Dr. Julius Manz, the director of the dental hygiene program at San Juan College, to be reminded of how important the annual Give Kids a Smile Day free dental clinic is to some folks in the community when he arrived at work Friday morning.
Manz said he strolled through the doors of the college’s Health and Human Performance Center at 7:30 a.m. on Feb. 2 to find there was already a line of folks waiting to be treated at the event. Included in that group was an entire family — a mother and her four children — and none of them spoke English. But the mother was clutching a flier about the clinic she had picked up somewhere in the community, and she was eager to have her kids treated.
Walk-in patients normally aren’t seen at the event, Manz said, as parents are required to make an appointment for their children to manage the flow of patients through the center throughout the day. But Manz was more than happy to make an exception in this case, he said.
After all four children had received free examinations, X-rays and cleanings, Manz smiled as he expressed the sense of satisfaction he felt at being part of an annual effort to provide oral health services to so many youngsters who otherwise might go untreated.
Give Kids a Smile Day was held for the 21st year in a row Friday with 14 doctors participating, along with their dental hygiene assistants and two dozen dental hygiene students from the college, said Dr. Gene Hilton, one of the Farmington dentists who volunteered his services for the event.
“This is one of our better years,” he said, remarking on the high degree of participation among Farmington’s oral health professionals.
Manz noted it took a significant effort by the clinic’s staff just to keep things organized at the front of the clinic as they checked a stream of steadily arriving patients in and guided them to the back, where they were herded into chairs so they could be seen.
“That’s a huge job,” he said of the task of simply managing so many young, nervous patients throughout the day.
While he acknowledged that affordability can be a significant issue for many parents, Manz said he hopes the experience of having their children seen by a dentist during the clinic will persuade many of those parents to find a regular “dental home” for their kids so that their long-term issues can be addressed. The dentists and dental hygienists who participate in the clinic each year also work hard to make the visits positive and welcoming for the kids, he said.
“We really try to make that experience good for them,” he said. “It’s important we work with the kids and not against them.”
Dr. Derek Graff was one of a handful of orthodontists who was providing examinations for children with more significant issues during the clinic. The parents of those who were found to have such problems were encouraged to bring their kids to his office for pro bono treatment on another day, he said.
“You can’t really do braces in one day,” he said, explaining that the fast-paced treatment system at the Give Kids a Smile Day clinic allowed him only to perform exams and consult with parents.
Graff said he looked forward to seeing some of those young patients who need his help the most somewhere down the line.
“I’m trying to find one or two kids (with the biggest issues) and try to do braces on them later,” he said.
But Graff acknowledged there is no guarantee all parents will take advantage of his offer.
“It surprises me when I tell people, ‘I’ll help you for free,’ and they don’t show up,” he said. “Of course, we can’t do free braces for everyone who needs them, but the worst ones are the ones we’re looking for — the kids with bite problems or severely bad smiles.”
He said many parents of young patients he has treated have related to him how different their children are after their crooked teeth are straightened.
“Oh, absolutely — that’s my favorite part of this,” he said. “I’ve had moms tell me, ‘In all the school pictures I had before, they’re smiling with their lips closed,’ but not now. Another mother told me her daughter’s cheek muscles were cramping because she smiles all the time.”
Manz said another satisfactory element for the doctors who participate in the clinic is the ability to relieve many of their young patients of the oral pain they are feeling from rapidly decaying teeth. But he said it’s the cosmetic improvements that seem to make the most difference.
“I can’t overemphasize how important the look of their teeth is to young people,” he said, explaining that many of them with brown or crooked teeth wind up getting bullied or teased, which has a significant effect on their self-esteem. “That’s hard to measure.”
Mike Easterling can be reached at 505-564-4610 or measterling@daily-times.com. Support local journalism with a digital subscription: http://bit.ly/2I6TU0e.
This article originally appeared on Farmington Daily Times: Free kids dental event held for 21st year at San Juan College
