Dental clinic gives hundreds reason to smile
Darlene Allen woke up at 4 a.m. Friday.
She caught a bus from her McKeesport home to arrive at the A.J. Palumbo Center in uptown Pittsburgh by 5:24 a.m.
She wanted to be in line early when registration began at 6 a.m. for the free dental clinic.
Ms. Allen, 64, had heard about the event from her church, Bethlehem Baptist in McKeesport.
Pain in a tooth had been bothering her for months, and getting
worse. It was hard to chew.
“They looked at it, they said it needs to come out,” she said Friday morning, after having an X-ray and while waiting to have the tooth pulled.
“I don't have insurance, so this was perfect,” she said.
The free care event, Mission of Mercy Pittsburgh, was hosted by Face2Face Healing, in partnership with the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine, and sponsored by TeleTracking Technologies, Inc., the PNC Foundation, UPMC, UPMC Health Plan and private donors.
The clinic treated more than 450 people Friday.
“Most of them are in pain, whether they are coming in to have a filing, a tooth removed; some are coming in to have partial dentures ... some are coming in for root canals. Some are coming in for routine cleanings,” said Tammi Grumski, a nurse practitioner who was leading medical triage at the event.
“Unfortunately, people [here] do not have dental insurance,” she said. “They don't see a dentist. They've gone years without seeing a dentist, so once they come here, there's multiple issues.”
Many Medicare plans do not include dental care, she said.
“There’s a lot of working families that have health insurance that can’t afford dental insurance, so they’re here too,” she said.
In Pennsylvania, Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program cover dental care for children; Medicaid offers dental care for adults, but with some limitations, according to the state’s Department of Human Services.
The event will continue Saturday with treatment from 7 a.m. until 4 p.m. Registration will begin at 6 a.m.
There are more than 600 volunteers assisting with the event.
“Access to oral health care is the largest unmet health care need in America,” said John Grant, director of The Pew Dental Campaign, part of The Pew Charitable Trusts.
Nationally, there are 114 million Americans who don’t have dental insurance. he said.
Additionally, many people enrolled in the Medicaid program have difficulty seeing a dentist, as do other people with low incomes, or people who live in under-served areas such as rural locations.
“Tooth decay isn’t like a cold or a flu or a fever. It only gets worse over time,” he said, and can lead to larger health problems if left untreated.
His organization advocates for dental therapists — a mid-level practitioner position sort of like a physician assistant or nurse practitioner in the medical field — to be able to treat more people.
Some free or low-cost dental care is available in other locations locally.
At The Squirrel Hill Health Center, a federally qualified health center, dental services such as cleaning, X-rays and fillings are available on a sliding fee scale, said Susan Friedberg Kalson, the center's CEO.
“There is a huge shortage of dental services for underserved people,” she said.