Inside the 18-wheeler parked at a Gilroy middle school,
4-year-old Felipe Ramirez climbed into the dental chair and sat
back as a paper apron was placed on his chest. He tapped his
dangling sneakers together anxiously.
Inside the 18-wheeler parked at a Gilroy middle school, 4-year-old Felipe Ramirez climbed into the dental chair and sat back as a paper apron was placed on his chest. He tapped his dangling sneakers together anxiously.
Through the waiting room door of the Mobile Dental Health Clinic, his mother, Lucina Ramirez, as well as a brother and sister watched dentist Aida Galan joke with the boy. Dental assistant and coordinator Rosa Avila snapped a picture with a digital camera. Felipe’s face was all one big happy smile.
Felipe was one of about 500 children throughout Santa Clara County who received free dental treatment Thursday from volunteer dentists. The annual “Dentists With a Heart” event was sponsored by the Health Trust, a not-for-profit corporation committed to improving the health for people in need throughout Santa Clara County. The Santa Clara County Dental Society partnered with the trust in the event.
“It benefits the children a lot,” Lucina said as Avila translated her Spanish into English. “I’m very thankful for this program.”
The Ramirez family lives in San Martin and Lucina brought seven of her 10 children to the mobile clinic for the program. The doctors cleaned each child’s teeth as well as took dental radiography X-rays which were processed in a lab at the back of the bright green 54-foot mobile clinic. The vehicle was partially funded by a $1.2 million grant from The California Endowment.
Felipe sat comfortably in the chair. He opened his mouth wide as Galan maneuvered her cleaning drill around his choppers.
“He was very scared of dentists before – very scared,” Lucina said. “But gradually, he’s grown accustomed. He was eager to come today.”
Galan, a San Jose dentist, believes in the Dentists With a Heart program because it contributes to the health of many of the county’s children who do not have medical or dental insurance.
“This is such an incredible day,” she said during a break. “You walk out of here tired but happy to serve the community. You see a lot of people out there that need (dental) care. They’re hiding in the community.”
Using a dental-inspection mirror, Hema Jhamb scrutinized the teeth of a young girl sitting in an examination chair in another chamber of the mobile clinic.
“Bite down,” she told the girl. The girl bit down her teeth.
“These kids are so good, so calm,” Jhamb said, looking for cavities in the child’s mouth.
In the reception area, Avila filled out paperwork for Lucina as the mother waited patiently for her two children now having their teeth examined.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Avila said of the program. “I get to work with families that are very gracious and need the help. They’re part of our community.”
A total of 60 dentists in Santa Clara County volunteered for the Feb. 12 event, said Valerie Stinnett, associate director for the Health Trust’s Dentists With A Heart program. Besides Galan and Jhamb, dentists providing free treatment to kids in the South Valley included Michael McKeever, Jeffrey Laveroni and Binh Pham.
“The focus of the Health Trust is to arrest dental disease and provide families with the necessary tools and understanding of how to prevent this infectious-nature disease,” she said. “Education and prevention is a biggie.”
Children and their parents or care-givers are provided with free toothbrushes and dental floss and shown the basics of oral hygiene, she said. Treatment ranges from basic cleaning to orthodontic, gum disease, and oral surgery.
“One girl is getting six teeth pulled,” she said.
Maintenance of teeth is important for children to have good health. When children’s teeth hurt, they often do not eat well. Tooth pain also affects their learning because it makes it hard for children to concentrate on their school studies, she said.
“Without us, these children wouldn’t get their teeth fixed,” Stinnett said. “I’m so proud of the program because it allows the Health Trust to fulfill its mission which is to meet the needs of the truly deserving children of the community. I don’t know where in America where this is happening to this extent.”
For details on on the Dentists With a Heart Program, call 283-6209.
