The first Access-To-Care Days at the University of Maryland Dental School provided free dental care to 114 uninsured, unemployed, and underserved people on July 24 and 25.
The program, co-sponsored by the L.D. Pankey Dental Foundation and the Dental School, was a collaboration of more than 100 community dentists, dental hygienists, dental and dental hygiene students, as well as a variety of nonmedical volunteers. Residents from the Helping Up Mission, My Sister's Place, and New Life for Girls were among the patients served at the event.
"This was an opportunity for these needy individuals to be rechanneled into health care. And the way to do that is to design the program that starts with oral health," says Louis DePaola, DDS, MS, professor and chair of the School's clinical operations board.
"A great emphasis of this program is to teach the patients how to prevent dental disease. It is more cost effective than continuing to treat dental disease," says Nancy Ward, DDS.
The two-day event was spearheaded by Ward and her husband, Denison Byrne, DDS. They practice together in Towson, Md., and are both Dean's Faculty members at the Dental School and representatives of the L.D. Pankey Dental Foundation.
Ward and Byrne assembled a team of volunteers to provide the dental care. Dental supplies were donated by sponsors including the Abell Foundation; Towson University; Henry Schein Cares; Heraeus Kulzer; Pulpdent Corp.; Colgate Palmolive Company; Procter & Gamble; Ultradent Products, Inc.; Bien-Air SA Dental; and the L.D. Pankey Dental Foundation. The Dental School provided the dental chairs and instruments needed for patient treatment.
The organizers called the program a unique opportunity in which the dental community, university facilities, and corporate sponsors came together to help make a difference in oral health for individuals in Baltimore.
The Dental School approached the program as "a chance to collaborate with many partners to provide uninsured adults with appropriate dental care," says DePaola. "I think this is a celebration--a happy event--partnering our faculty, volunteers, and corporate sponsors. Together we can do something meaningful."
DePaola notes that the program took an extensive amount of planning for several weeks, including pre-registration of the patients. Working toward a common goal of providing the most dental care possible within two days, the project was aimed at delivering more than $150,000 of patient care, which included emergency, preventive, and restorative oral health procedures to citizens of Baltimore.
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