 |
A UNMC dental student applies a crown to the bottom left tooth of Alan Loeza of Grand Island during last year’s Children’s Dental Day event. Officials expect about $100,000 worth of dental work to be done during Friday’s Children’s Dental Day in Lincoln. |
Two hundred and twenty children from seven Nebraska communities are expected to attend with the first bus arriving at 8 a.m. and the last bus leaving at 3 p.m. The children are from Lexington, Madison, Grand Island, Hastings, Norfolk, Columbus and Lincoln.
Services provided at this one-day event include cleanings, fluoride treatments, sealants, cavity fillings, education and emergency care as needed. Last year 450 children received more than $200,000 worth of services through Children’s Dental Day events held at the UNMC College of Dentistry in Lincoln, as well as Omaha,
Hastings and several communities in the Nebraska Panhandle.
The UNMC College of Dentistry hosted its first Children’s Dental Day in the fall of 2001. The value of care delivered over the past five years by the UNMC College of Dentistry totals nearly $1 million.
“Children’s Dental Day is an opportunity for the college to exercise both its education and outreach missions,” said David Brown, Ph.D., executive associate dean, UNMC College of Dentistry and the coordinator of the event. “The annual event helps underserved Nebraska children, while providing an opportunity for dental and dental hygiene students to gain more clinical experience.”
While upper-level dental and dental-hygiene students work in the clinics, many of the first-year students facilitate games with the children, including those that teach good snack choices, how soda pop affects teeth, what decay looks like and how to brush and floss. Lunch and healthy snacks are also provided and each child receives a goody bag of items, including a toothbrush, toothpaste, floss, activity book and stickers.
“This event not only provides badly needed care for underserved children, but also strengthens the spirit of volunteerism among our students faculty, and staff,” said John Reinhardt, D.D.S., dean of the College of Dentistry. “We give a lot on Children’s Dental Day but I think we receive even more.”
Children participating in the event are identified and pre-screened in their communities by volunteers including school nurses, members of faith-based organizations, Head Start, dentists and dental hygienists.
These volunteers donate their time to identifying needy children, providing oral-health screenings that indicate the type of care the children will need when they come to the college. In many cases, these volunteers come with the children to the free dental clinic for emotional support and translation services.