Oral Health Day 2018 Treats Nearly Double the Cases Over Last Year

On Saturday, March 10, 2018,, Meharry Medical College School of Dentistry faculty, staff and students put the college’s mission of service on display for the Nashville-Middle Tennessee area with Oral Health Day, an annual event delivering free dental services to uninsured Tennesseans.

School of Dentistry students, faculty, alumni and visiting dental professionals provided exams, cleanings, extractions, fillings and other services on a first-come-first-served basis—nearly 600 procedures in all, almost double the services rendered during last year’s Oral Health Day. No insurance or ID was required, and services were available to those 18 and older.

Early in the day, prospective patients lined up around the Henry A. Moses, Ph.D. Alumni Hall waiting to register. Doors opened at 7 a.m. and clinic work extended into the evening. Inside, student volunteers from the Meharry School of Medicine and members of sponsoring organizations—the Meharry Chapter of the American Student Dental Association and Remote Area Medical volunteer corps—as well as others from area colleges registered patients and took medical histories. Patients were then led to the School of Dentistry building where the clinics were located and waited in the halls for their treatments to be performed.

The college also took advantage of Oral Health Day to showcase its new Mobile Dental Clinic, using the facility to perform exams and cleanings. The mobile clinic, a tractor-trailer containing four treatment bays and capable of operating independently, recently began its statewide mission to provide dental services to underserved populations across Tennessee.