Dental care brings smiles
Call it EDOC-plus. For years, the Emergency Dental Outreach Clinic, held twice a month at the Prince George Native Friendship Centre, has been providing treatment to low-income residents in need of relief from aching teeth.
But for help with anything much beyond basic extractions, they would have to look elsewhere or simply live with what they have - until this past fall, that is, when they began to be referred to the CNC dental studies program.
With the help of local dentists, students in the program have been working on what instructor Cyndi Lewis calls "restorative services" from fillings to root canals - the types of things EDOC volunteers often have no time to provide due to the lineup of patients.
For Andrea Nelson, who is working towards a certificate in dental assistance, it provides the practical experience she would not get on a mannequin.
"It's different, it's having that person-toperson interaction and figuring yourself out around a real human mouth," Nelson said. "Because all of the dummies, they have very standard human mouths - they have perfect teeth and perfect, open contacts and they're easy to work on," Nelson said.
Patients include the homeless, the working poor and their families, as well as seniors whose dental plans have lapsed upon retirement. Appointments typically take longer because the instructors need to check the students' work as they go. But for some, like Linda Allen, it's a way to get work done without having to deal with her nervousness around dentists.
"I'm not paranoid of it, it's just that I get tense and it's one of those things you do because you have to," she said. "And the first appointment I had, I think was a three-hour appointment and I was just reading my book in between and it was just fabulous."