Health & Fitness Tools

Financially Burdened Patients Avail Of Low Cost Dental Treatment

12th October, 2010 - Posted by health news - No Comments

With a big smile on her face, a young black haired woman sat by herself in the small waiting room of the dental clinic. On the only dental chair of the clinic sat a middle aged woman who was currently having her teeth checked by the dentist. She thought that without the clinic’s low cost services she couldn’t afford dental care at all.

A project of a non profit organization operation, the dental clinic has operated for 43 years. Health care for pregnant and infants was provided for by the clinic for many years in the organization’s building. Children can go to the clinic and expect to be provided with dental care.The foundation that a woman left us in her will and other private donations were what funded the operation of the clinic.Reexamining the services we offered when the foundation ran out a year ago made us realize that much of what we provided were already being duplicated by other agencies. The clinic closed because there were no more funds. If you are in search of info don’t forget to view this resource Smile Makeovers.

Since low income people were not having their dental needs met, they decided on renting out the main building and remodeling the garage. Converting the garage into a small dental office was going to cost a lot, so the organization worked to raise $10,000 through donations. The equipment for the office was already available since they had been donated earlier by dentists for the previous dental clinic.

The decision of who among the prospective patients will get low cost care is made after an interview with them. To avoid competition with other area dentists, the clinic rejects people who make enough for private dental care. A sliding scale is what the clinic uses to determine those who can avail of the clinic’s services and also how much the clinic should charge their patients.The fee scale is based on the number of family members and income.

The clinic cannot administer low cost dental care to a family of four with a monthly income of $1,000. The family, however, can receive dental examination costing only $8 if its monthly income is between $800 and $1,000. Family incomes amounting to less than $800 a month would qualify families for an examination fee of only $5. You would pay an average of $15 to $20 for a dental examination received from private Santa Fe dentists.As a person looking for Bright Smile you should visit that site.

Some patients are maybe 42 or 55, and you can tell they haven’t had dental care, maybe ever. A lot of the patients in the clinic are children. Clinic dentists gave dental treatment to children who qualified for federally funded special programs of the county early in the winter. The cost of all the dental services and treatment is usually covered by one program.

Presently the clinic only makes weekly schedules for 20 patients, but dentists are still able to take in more. After finding that too many patients failed to keep their appointments and left dentists waiting, the secretary began making appointments for a specific day but not setting a time. On the day that they are scheduled for an appointment, patients who show up will be seen by dentists on a first come, first served basis. We give instructions to every person who comes in on how to have good personal oral hygiene.The clinic makes it a point to supply toothbrushes and dental floss for its patients who don’t use or own any of these dental hygiene products.When these patients come for their next scheduled appointment, they will have improved teeth.