Dental Clinics to Offer Free Dental Services for Needy

UMDNJ to offer free dental services at Scotch Plains clinic

SCOTCH PLAINS — A dental clinic in Scotch Plains expects to draw more than 100 people this weekend by offering free treatment to the uninsured, a group some say is widening as the economy sinks. A Scotch Plains dental clinic will offer free cleanings, exams, fillings and other services this weekend to some of the area’s neediest patients.

Faculty and students from the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey and the Pankey Institute, a Florida-based non-profit dental school, will offer cleanings, exams, fillings and other services to patients at UMDNJ’s facility along Raritan Road. UMDNJ has run similar programs at other sites, but this is the first time it will offer the free treatment in Scotch Plains.

More: http://www.nj.com

Butler County Dental clinic needs $40,000 to open

When 62-year-old Cheryll Brown runs her tongue along the seven teeth that remain in her lower jaw, she can feel the cavities that have formed over long years of little money and no dental insurance.

The Butler County woman considers herself lucky that the teeth don’t ache, but she wonders whether she’ll soon have to scrape up the cash for an extraction and bottom plate of false teeth. She’s worn a top plate for almost 40 years; the last time it needed to be replaced, she, her family and friends saved aluminum cans for months until she had enough money to buy them.

Mrs. Brown, of Concord, is among 800 people whose names are on a list of would-be patients at a free dental clinic so close to opening it’s almost painful to think about for Cecelia Buechele Foster, executive director of the 18-month-old Community Health Clinic of Butler County.

More: http://www.post-gazette.com