By Joao Bicalho,
Correspondent
GREEN COVE SPRINGS – Patients line up in a parking lot on Idlewild Avenue early in the morning. The building lights are off and the door locked.
Volunteers arrive and use the back door. Inside, they on turn the lights and unlock the front door.
The line moves slowly as patients get into the small waiting room and start filling in paperwork.
Patients come for different reasons. Some to relieve pain, others to get their teeth pulled, but they all have one thing in common. They are all low-income residents who cannot afford dental care, and find at the Clay County Dental Care a free service which gives them plenty of reasons to smile.
Dr. Greg Archambault is a volunteer at the clinic. In fact, all employees in the clinic are volunteers who give their time and share their skills with those in need. They have a lot of work when the clinic opens its doors every Friday and there is no financial reward for those who work at the clinic. No one is in a payroll system.
"I come here every other Friday probably," said a busy Archambault who talks while he gathers all the materials he needs to jump-start his day. With a busy schedule, he understands that the service provided by the clinic "it’s just something that had to be done."
Dr. Curtis Standish is also a volunteer and has been in dentistry in Clay County since 1980. He’s been volunteering at the clinic since May after he decided to embrace the challenge as one of the service projects assisted by the Rotary Club of Fleming Island.
"It’s obviously an underserved population, (it’s) very difficult for a lot of patients who don’t have dental insurance with work, maybe these people are out of work and there is no other facility available for that treatment to be provided in Clay County," said Standish who understands the importance of the service he provides to local residents.
He also said the clinic has been raising a lot of interest in the local dental society, which has recently funded a $6,500 donation and has been showing substantial support to the work developed at the clinic.
Challenges aside, Standish said patients count on volunteers to get their free service and since there are no paid workers, at this point, "it’s difficult to have consistency."
"We’re getting there and there’s been a lot of enthusiasm lately," said Standish.
James Selsor was in line early in the morning and came to have his teeth pulled. After being screened by the front desk, he sits on the patient’s chair and waits for the anesthetics to kick in.
"I am unemployed," said Selsor, an Orange Park resident who was referred to the clinic and returns to give continuity to his dental treatment.
Selsor understands that the services provided by volunteers at the clinic are paramount to people who are now facing a situation like his.
His second visit to the clinic has been "super" and he finds comfort knowing not only he is getting qualified help, but also recognizing that there are more people in the same position he is who are also getting help.
Archambault’s experience at the clinic has allowed him to see some interesting cases over the course of his career.
"Virtually, every Friday, there’s one kind of interesting case that stands above the others," said Archambault who started reminiscing about the most unusual cases he worked on.
He said he had a 3-year-old patient whose teeth were rotten to the gum line. The parents brought the child in, and after explaining to the parents they could not give the child Coke and juices all the time, especially before naps, he was astounded with the parents’ reaction.
"This kid is three years old. The dad turns to the kid and says ‘did you hear that?’ Like (he was) blaming the kid. You know what I told him? I said, wow, he looks pretty young to get in the car and drive to the store and buy that Coke. That’s what I told him. Don’t blame the three-year-old. I couldn’t believe it," said Archambault.
Another clinical case he witnessed, which he will likely not forget, was treated by another dentist.
He said a patient "administered 10 bottles of super-glue" and kept adding to his teeth over the course of a year so his teeth wouldn’t loosen.
"He just kept adding it to his teeth as they loosen and he had this big, thick, huge, super-glue ledge on his teeth," said Archambault. "The teeth underneath would have decay and he did this for a year with no symptoms and, finally, of course, it didn’t work, and we had to extract all those teeth. It was just clogged up down there and thick and was all darkened and decayed. O my gosh, I’ve never seen it. We all looked before he (the dentist) did the extractions."
As the work in the clinic progresses, Archambault notices that educating his patients on dental care is as paramount as providing emergency treatment on the spot.
"Now that we’re here, we are discussing how we can raise some money to buy a lot more equipment so that we can do a lot more work faster. For example, there is equipment that you can use to do gum treatment," said Archambault. "We do a lot of extractions but there are some things we could do in order to do more prevention things and we have a whole system of education that we’re now purchasing to give people so we can teach them – things about the diet, things about their homecare, especially the diet."
He said there is a range of educational materials such as DVDs and printed fliers that can assist patients and professionals alike which would save both sides of the story several hundred dollars.
Archambault is happy with the support the clinic has had over the years, even when it was a project on paper, and he has a lot of people to thank.
"I cannot think of them all. We don’t owe anybody anything, which is nice, of course we don’t have any payroll," said Archambault. "We’ve been able to just sort of make it happen, fortunately."
Among those, whose donation has supported the clinic and help open its doors to residents in need, are The Rotary Club which has donated $5,000, the Jaguar Foundation which has donated $25,000, the Clay County Dental Society which has donated over $50,000, private donations which account for several hundred dollars, as well as some churches who also support the clinic through donations, he said.
If money plays a vital role to keep the doors open, volunteer service allows patients to get the help they need.
"We see at least 20 (patients), we stay until 2:30 p.m. sometimes depending on the sad story and the patient’s ability to hang around. The number of dentists that are here dictate what we are able to accomplish and the assistants that come here are critical, I know that we take them for granted in our offices, when they come here they’re like gold because we realize that we’re not very effective without them," said Archambault.
He said he would like to see a different clinic in the future.
Ten years from now, he would like to see "a system where the patients have an understanding of what they can do to help themselves and not just emergencies."
Archambault would also like to see a different attitude that comes with a free-clinic in the future. He understands that if patients could contribute somehow, the dynamic would change drastically. In a much more positive aspect, he added.
"If it’s free how much could it be worth? There is a certain attitude that comes with that," said Archambault who understands that all the present, and future resources, are essential either to those who provide and those who providentially receive dental care services in Clay County – especially when both sides of the story struggle to afford it.
November 13th 2008 - 2:31PM