The NE dental program provides the public with dental cleanings at a low price, giving the opportunity for anyone, with or without dental insurance, to get their teeth cleaned for just $10.
Norma Guadalupe, a second-year dental student, said the cleanings were beneficial to her and her family because they do not have dental insurance.
“I’ve been bringing my whole family,” she said. “Every single one of my family members just get to pay the $10, and they feel comfortable because it’s me doing the service.”
The program director, Amy Cooper, said that there are 20 dental treatment rooms in the clinic and only five are used at a time. Because of that, there are small groups of dental hygiene students in each room, allowing them to observe the cleaning closer without crowding.
Brittany Green, NE dental instructor, said both first-year and second-year dental students can do the cleanings. However, the first-year students must wait until their second semester.
“Some schools actually don’t have a clinic on campus, so these students are lucky that they have that,” Green said. “So they’re able to bring care and services here. The school that I went to, we actually had to go to county facilities and serve patients there.”
Green explained that the students have a checklist to go over before they approve the patient for a cleaning.
As a clinical instructor, she reviews the patient’s medical history taken by the students, then checks for any medical allergies. The students also perform an extra oral exam to look for oral cancer or for any lesions they think could be cancerous.
“They also take measurements around the gums, and then they perform the cleaning,” Green said. “So everything that they do in there, the instructor has to go in there and check it.”
Guadalupe said seeing patients is a requirement for the students.
“We have something called a pool,” she said. “So, when we need patients, we’ll just look in the pool and then look at their availability, their schedule and then we’ll contact them.”
Another NE dental student, Brianna Hernandez, takes it upon herself to find patients so she can meet the requirement of seeing eight patients this semester.
“I’m not from this area, so I have to depend on that pool,” she said. “I did an ad on Facebook where I found people I don’t know, and they never even heard of the clinic before.”
Hernandez said community work also plays a key role in her dental curriculum.
“It’s like a part of our rotations,” she said. “Dental Health Arlington [is a] nonprofit, and it’s discounted rates for these patients. We’ll go in there and then we have sterilization rotation, cleaning the instrument and then the front desk. So we’re bouncing off in every part of the clinic.”
Green said the service is open to all. She explained that she has had patients who have driven four hours to get a cleaning.
“People that don’t have dental insurance, cleanings could be from $120 to $1,000,” she said. “So a $10 cleaning is beneficial to people that can’t afford it.”
