Free Dental Clinic and Care For Kids

At school’s free dental clinic, a twofold function for students
Dental students learn the ropes — and kids get a reason to grin

Eight-year-old Haleigh Ash’s teeth gleamed under the overhead lamp Monday, as a dentist cleaned her teeth and a dental assistant — a junior in high school — removed excess cleaning material with a suction hose.

“You have a nice new tooth on the bottom, don’t you?” dentist Vicki Schauber said, as she worked on Haleigh at the dental clinic at Hodgson Vocational Technical High School near Glasgow.

“I need new dental floss,” Haleigh said. “I ran out of it.”

“I think they have a package to take with you,” Schauber told her.

Haleigh, a third-grader at Christina School District’s Brader Elementary School in Newark, normally would be in class on a Monday afternoon. But she was visiting the clinic as part of a special arrangement between Brader and the New Castle County Vocational Technical School District high school that allows under-insured children to receive free dental care.

The program also gives juniors in Hodgson’s dental assisting program the chance to work with people rather than mannequins, and the movement helps make the exercise real, Schauber said.

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Local dentists needed for Give Kids A Smile Day, a community service project

The American Dental Association’s seventh annual Give Kids A Smile Day, when local dentists offer free dental care to children in need, will take place Friday, Feb. 6, 2009.

Oral Health Bridgeport Initiative (ORBIT) and the Bridgeport Dental Association (BDA) urge local dentists to participate by volunteering their services and making a difference in the lives of children.

Dentists can volunteer their services at their offices on Feb. 6 or on any other day in February that is convenient for them. They also can choose how many children they will see and the types of services they or their hygienists will provide.

More: http://www.acorn-online.com/…