Student-dental assistant Keya Brown and dentist-oral surgeon Selen Tolu check up on a patient during the free dental clinic in the XFINITY Center on Friday, September 5.
There was nothing but smiles in Xfinity Center on Friday and Saturday, as more than 1,000 uninsured and underinsured area residents reaped the benefits of more than $1 million worth of free dental care.
The two-day Mid-Maryland Mission of Mercy and Health Equity Festival, sponsored by Catholic Charities and the public health school’s Center for Health Equity, provided an estimated $1.5 million in free oral care to 1,260 people, said Stephen Thomas, director of the Center for Health Equity.
The number of people served — well over the event’s goal of 1,000 — sets a record in the state, Thomas said.
Catholic Charities put on a similar, smaller scale event last year at a high school in Laurel. Thomas said hearing about the event inspired him to contact Deacon Jim Nalls of Catholic Charities to extend an offer of partnership.
“The demand was so great … they turned 500 people away,” Thomas said. “When I saw that, I said to myself, ‘Those are the very people that we’re trying to reach in our public health campaign.’”
The event, which took about one year of planning, transformed the floor of the arena into a makeshift dental clinic, packed with x-ray equipment, 112 dental chairs, air compressors, suction pumps and other supplies, Nalls said.
Nalls added that donations from corporations and individuals helped cover the $150,000 cost of the event.
Thomas said an estimated 1,800 people volunteered, after only 800 were expected to sign up. These people dedicated time to perform a variety of procedures, from dental cleanings and cavity fillings to extractions and crowns. Some dentists closed their offices to donate their time as volunteers.
Twenty exhibitors also participated in the event and offered a multitude of free services, including cholesterol checks, flu shots, eye examinations, HIV rapid tests and educational one-on-one talks with attorneys, nutritionists and counselors, Thomas said.
Many of the volunteers, including Gary Bedrosian, a third-year graduate student at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry in Baltimore, were current or former Terrapins.
“It’s me and a bunch of my classmates who are coming out to volunteer,” said Bedrosian, who helped mainly with extractions and cavities. “It means a lot because I got here at 6 a.m. and there was a line like half a mile long, and everyone was smiling at me as I came in. You can just tell it means so much.”
For many of the uninsured and underinsured, events like these are the only way to receive any kind of dental care.
“People were lining up at 4 o’clock in the morning to come in,” university President Wallace Loh said. “So there’s an enormous need in the community that is not being met.”
Despite all of the people served at the festival, 1,000 people were turned away in the end, echoing the substantial need that still remains for adult oral care, Thomas said.
Nalls said this need stems from the glaring reality although it’s a basic health care component, dental care is not considered as such on the federal, state or local level.
“The Affordable Care Act, Obamacare — there’s not one dollar in that plan for oral health care,” Nalls said. “So the need is huge, and that’s why these events are so popular.”
April McDavid, a Largo resident who works part-time for the Maryland-National Capital Park and Planning Commission, came to the event to have a cavity filled because her job does not provide her with dental insurance.
“I’m glad that they have been able to put on this program for us, especially for people who don’t have insurance, like myself,” McDavid said. “I appreciate all the doctors and everyone here who is coming together to help make this event possible.”
Cardinal Donald Wuerl, Archbishop of Washington, who attended the event and spoke with many of the patients, said this notion of togetherness is the most heartwarming and reassuring.
“What you are doing here is not only providing dental care; you’re offering a witness to the whole community that good things can happen. Let’s just make them happen together,” Wuerl said. “If you ever are asked, ‘Do good things still happen in our community, in our state?’, look here and you see it.”
Due to an editing error, a previous version of this story incorrectly identified event volunteer Gary Bedrosian as a graduate student at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Bedrosian is a graduate student at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry in Baltimore, Maryland. This version has been updated to reflect the change.
