900 at free clinic want pain relief
Posted on Saturday, May 3, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/News/224555/
Sherry Ryker arrived at the Statehouse Convention Center at 3 a. m. Friday, determined to rid herself of a bad tooth that has pained her for six months.
“My tooth had a hole in it,” said Ryker, who lives in Star City, about 75 miles from Little Rock. “It hurt so bad it was like a throbbing in my ear.”
Ryker was one of about 900 people who sought relief from painful conditions including tooth decay and abscessed and broken teeth at the Arkansas Mission of Mercy free dental clinic. The clinic began Friday and finishes today.
Nationally, 66 percent of U. S. children and 91 percent of U. S. adults have had tooth decay, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 40 percent of poor adults have at least one untreated decayed tooth, compared with 16 percent of nonpoor adults.
In Arkansas, an estimated 187, 000 adults over age 40 have no natural teeth, according to the Arkansas Department of Health.
The second annual Mission of Mercy brought together 730 volunteers, including 143 dentists with the Arkansas Dental Association and their dental assistants, orthodontists, nurses and pharmacists, who provided fillings and extractions to uninsured and low-income adults and children with poor oral health.
By the time the doors opened at 6: 30 a. m., the line stretched down Main Street and snaked around to West Second Street. Arkansas National Guard soldiers provided security and helped direct the crowd.
By 8 a. m., clinic officials cut the line off at the last person and stopped accepting new people, said Dr. Miranda Childs, mission chairman and a dentist in Arkadelphia.
Some people had been in line since 8 p. m. Thursday, said Dr. Joe Pinney, a dentist from Sherwood.
“It shows there’s significant need that’s not being met,” Pinney said. “This is sort of a Band-Aid for the problem. I don’t know what the real solution is.”
Gov. Mike Beebe toured the clinic Friday morning, hugging volunteers and shaking hands. The clinic provides a vital service for people who have no other way to get dental care, he said. “They’ve been in pain for weeks, months, years,” Beebe said. “Getting relief is really important to them.” Many areas of the state are underserved medically, including in dental care, Beebe said. “The solution to the problem requires a lot more than we can do at the state level,” Beebe said. “It requires the collaboration of the public sector and the private sector, and everybody working together.”
UNDERSERVED The state has one dentist for every 2, 400 Arkansans. Four counties have no dentists, and seven counties have 40 or more dentists, according to the 2007 Natural Wonders report by Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
The state has 40 pediatric dentists, or one for every 17, 000 residents under age 18.
More than 150 million Americans have limited or no dental insurance, according to the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services.
At the clinic Friday, many people seeking care said they couldn’t afford dental insurance. Some parents who had children with them said their incomes were too high to qualify their children for ARKids First, the state insurance program for children from low-income familes. ARKids First provides partial dental care.
“For every child that doesn’t have medical insurance, five more don’t have dental insurance,” Childs said.
Arkansas Medicaid doesn’t cover dental care but has budgeted more than $ 2. 5 million to begin paying for adult dental care. The Arkansas Department of Human Services is ironing out details of what benefits will be offered, with a tentative target start date of July, a spokesman said.
Holding her right cheek in pain, Ryker, a stay-at-home mother of three, said she couldn’t afford to go to a dentist. Her husband is unemployed, and they don’t have dental insurance. She was told that a dentist visit and extraction would be about $ 300.
“I don’t have that kind of money to spend,” she said.
Nathan Dearyan limited himself to liquids and soft foods after an accident six months ago. He was changing a tire and the jack handle flew up and hit him in the jaw, breaking eight teeth. A dentist in Amity told him it would cost $ 12, 000 to fix them.
“I can’t chew,” said Dearyan, a land surveyor from Caddo Gap. “It gives me grief.”
He originally planned to make the two-hour drive to Little Rock himself but changed his mind and woke up his wife, Rachel, at 4 a. m. Friday and told her to wake their six children, ages 1 to 9 — the whole family was going.
The family can’t afford dental insurance, and most of the children had never been to a dentist, said Nathan Dearyan, holding his 1-year-old son Judah with two blond-haired children tugging at his jeans.
Two of the children had fillings for a few cavities each. Sixyear-old Ruth didn’t have any cavities, but had sealant put on four teeth to prevent decay. She said her first time at the dentist didn’t hurt.
“It kind of tickled a bit,” Ruth said.
THE CLINIC A total of 1, 542 people were treated during the Mission of Mercy last year, with volunteers performing 886 fillings and 2, 774 teeth extractions, said Chris Pyle, spokesman for Delta Dental of Arkansas, which contributed $ 100, 000 for this year’s clinic. More are expected to be served this year, Childs said. People seeking care were ushered into a large waiting area. They then went through medical triage to ensure that they didn’t have any health concerns that would make dental care risky. Volunteer dentists and orthodontists then checked their teeth and asked about their most serious needs.
Dr. Tom Phelan, an orthodontist in west Little Rock, said most people had rampant tooth decay in multiple teeth. Some showed evidence of drug use.
“We’re not asking any questions,” said Dr. Sam Nickol, a retired dentist. “Everybody’s welcome.”
Childs said volunteers are limited in what they can do.
“We’re trying to take care of their chief complaint because we know that with this volume of patients we can’t do everything,” Childs said. “We want more patients out of pain.”
From there the patients went to a second section to be numbed, and then they waited their turn for extractions or fillings.
On the sidewalk outside, Ray Oswalt and 16 other volunteers with the Arkansas Baptist State Convention Disaster Relief prepared meals for people going to the clinic. The volunteers arrived at 4: 30 a. m. to provide a breakfast of biscuits and gravy, and later served a lunch of chicken and dumplings.
“I think we served about 700 people this morning,” Oswalt said. “They were really appreciative. Some of them had been out here since last night.”
Keneshia Ferrell, 20, of Jacksonville woke up at 6 a. m. to take her son Keshawn Harris, 2, for his first checkup. Keshawn was treated first, but Ferrell was hoping to get checked out herself.
“I have a cavity, and it’s been hurting me so bad,” she said. “It’s like a stinging. If I eat something cold, it just hurts me real bad.”
Having recently started a new job as a cashier at a hardware store, Ferrell said, she doesn’t yet qualify for dental insurance.
“It’s pretty expensive to get the work done, especially when you don’t have insurance,” she said.
Ryker said she felt much better after having four teeth pulled.
“It’s not throbbing my ear like it did before,” she said. “I’m just happy they did this. Without it, I’d still be in pain.”