Three Issaquah women flew to rural Tennessee to help provide free dental care for over 300 impoverished Americans.
“It makes you appreciate everything you have,” said dentist Donna Quinby from the Eastside Pediatric Group.
The demand for service was so high at the Oct. 23-24 event that some patients drove several hours from Ohio to get free care.
Patients then lined up to get a lottery tickets, which determined who got service.
The dentists performed about 1,200 teeth pullings, including many full-mouth extractions.
For America, the number of teeth pullings was surprising, Quinby said. “I would imagine a lot of them have been in pain for quite some time.”
She was also surprised to see what people knew about oral hygiene.
The most astonishing moment for Quinby was when 52-year-old woman said that she had stopped brushing her teeth, because she thought she needed all of them pulled.
As it turns out, many of the woman’s teeth were just fine.
Even in these times, the message about the importance of good oral hygiene isn’t getting out, she said.
“It made me realize we really need to get the message to our pediatric patients.”
The project was organized by the Remote Area Medical Volunteer Corps, and also included medical and vision care, totaling 452 patients.
The group filled a high school gym with folding tables loaded with dental equipment.
Quinby mainly focused on fillings, and left the extractions to the oral surgeons. The group worked two long days with few breaks.
She had first heard about the RAM events from an episode of CBS’s 60 Minutes about a year ago, and two employees in Issaquah volunteered to go as well.
The event in Tennessee just happened to line up with her schedule.
“If I have the time and the skills, I should definitely be doing this,” said hygienist Stephanie Keane.
Many of the patients had been out of work for several years, and had no means to pay for treatment, she said.
RAM organizes free medical, vision and dentist events throughout the United States and the world, bringing in volunteer doctors and professionals to offer free care.
For Quinby, she got more out of the experience than she felt she gave, she said.
