I want to be … a dentist
Published 11:20 am Wednesday, June 19, 2013
University of Minnesota dental therapy student Leah Hildebrandt looks inside Christian Alejo’s mouth Tuesday at the UCare Mobile Clinic. The dentist clinic is in Austin this week serving UCare patients and providing an educational opportunity for dentistry students.
Mobile Dental Clinic reduces burden of barriers to dental care
Christian Alejo looked a little nervous sitting in a dentist chair Tuesday morning, as any 11-year-old would. University of Minnesota dental therapy student Leah Hildebrandt, however, was there to comfort him while examining his teeth.
Hildebrandt and several other U of M School of Dentistry students, faculty and assistants are in Austin this week with the UCare Mobile Dental Clinic to get Ucare members who live in the area access to dental care.
The dental clinic is a way to reduce the burden of geographic and fiscal barriers to dental care, according to Dr. Robert Conlin of the University of Minnesota. Conlin supervised students treating people at the dental clinic Tuesday.
“The numbers are pretty high, and getting higher,” Conlin said of the people treated through the initiative.
UCare, is a nonprofit health plan for Medicare-eligible residents, people enrolled in state health care programs like MinnesotaCare and medical assistance, as well as adults with disabilities. The company partnered with the U of M in 2002 to provide preventive and restorative dentistry to residents. While the clinic spends most of the time in the Twin Cities area, dentists and dental students take the dental clinic outstate one out of every four weeks to treat patients.
“The need has been there and we’ve been aware of it as a profession for a long time,” Conlin said. “We’re just trying to do something about these problems as best we can.”
Studies have shown a correlation between oral health and general health, yet not everyone in Minnesota has easy access to dental care. While there were about 3,000 dentists in the state in 2006, most dental practices are in metropolitan areas like the Twin Cities, and not in areas like Austin, Winona or Thief River Falls, all places the dental clinic has visited over the years.
For people like Concepcion Rubio-Garcia, the dental clinic is a boon.
“It’s very good, because I don’t have to go to Rochester or elsewhere to get care for myself and my children,” she said Tuesday.
The mobile dental clinic is parked at Our Savior’s Lutheran Church in Austin this week, in order to treat Mower County residents.
