In July, the UNMC College of Dentistry in Omaha held an engagement event for veterans, offering free dental service to seven former members of the armed forces at what Dean Gerard Kugel, DMD, PhD, called a veterans’ outreach day.
“We are piloting this in Omaha,” Dr. Kugel said of the event, which was paid for through philanthropic donations to the college. “Ideally, I’d like to do this once a month, but we’ll have to wait and see.”
The UNMC College of Dentistry provided dental services for veterans at a pilot event on July 11 at the med center in Omaha.
Dr. Kugel and Gregory Bennett, DMD, chair of the UNMC Department of Adult Restorative Dentistry and a veteran himself, traveled to Omaha to team with clinic leaders Amir Farhangpour, DDS, Kathleen O’Brien-Ausman, DDS, and Jay Hansen, DDS, with dental residents joining faculty Corinne Van Osdale, DDS, and Madelyn Zastrow, DDS, to perform the dental work.
Resident Cecil Cray, DDS, is a Marine Corps veteran who came to Nebraska partly because of the college’s work with Nebraska’s veteran population.
“I thought it was pretty awesome,” he said. “I know how much it means to give back to these veterans.”
At the veterans' dental clinic on July 11, dental faculty and residents working out of the adult dentistry clinic in the Durham Outpatient Center assessed and created dental care plans for seven veterans.
Dwain Holmes, an Army Vietnam veteran and a longtime chaplain for a number of veterans groups, praised the work of the college.
“At the hospital I get eyes, ears, heart, all that stuff taken care of, but not teeth, so I'm happy to see something like this help out in that area,” he said.
Holmes, who works with homeless veterans, said there are a lot of veterans in Nebraska in need of dental care, and he hopes to see the college’s engagement efforts for veterans expand, not only in Omaha but elsewhere in the state.
Air Force veteran Raul Alves, who was seen by Dr. Cray, said he felt “really good” to have a fellow veteran doing the work on his teeth.
“It’s a bond we all have,” he said. “Even though we served in different services, we’re all brothers.”
Alves also said the dental work would be life-changing.
“That's why I grew out my beard, because I feel ashamed of not having any teeth,” he said.
Both Holmes and Alves said they were willing to be interviewed to help raise awareness of the efforts of the dental college to help veterans.
“If this could be expanded, that would be great,” Holmes said.
Veterans who received dental care at the clinic say they appreciated the efforts of the UNMC College of Dentistry.
Dr. Kugel has held separate events known as VETSmile Dental Clinics in the college’s Lincoln clinic and is working to expand the college’s engagement efforts with Nebraska’s veteran community in other ways, as well. Dates for future events are not set at this time, and future patients will be selected through collaboration with the Omaha VA, Disabled American Veterans and other Nebraska veteran organizations.
“There is a great need for dental care among Nebraska’s veteran population,” Dr. Kugel said. “We are exploring collaborations with other entities, working with the philanthropic community – just basically doing the best we can to discover ways to address this need and provide care to these men and women to whom we owe so much.”
People who wish to donate to the college’s veteran outreach programs may make a gift to the College of Dentistry’s Veterans’ Clinic Fund. For more information, contact Theresa Brown at the University of Nebraska Foundation via email.
People who wish to donate to the college’s veteran outreach programs may make a gift to the College of Dentistry’s Veterans’ Clinic Fund at the link above.
Excellent service by the COD team! So glad to see veterans receiving this much-needed dental care. Thank you