A Head Start on Dental Health

Too many children in Chester County have large, painful cavities by the time they’re four or five years old. A shocking number have multiple cavities so large you can see them with the naked eye.  Knowing this—seeing it week after week—is what motivates Jaclyn Gleber to travel across Chester County teaching children about dental health and screening them for cavities. 

In October Jaclyn led workshops at Head Start in Phoenixville, West Chester and Coatesville. Her workshops are a natural fit for the Head Start Program, which prepares young children to be ready for school. The pain of dental disease makes it hard for children to focus in class.  Children sometimes act out to distract themselves from their pain.  And too often, children miss school altogether, losing 51 million hours nationally every year because of dental disease. 

Dental disease is the most common chronic childhood disease. It’s five times more common than asthma and 100% preventable. Learning good dental health habits early can help prevent disease and screening identifies children who already have serious cavities.  Jaclyn, a Registered Public Health Dental Hygienist and Ph.D. in Education, is an evangelist for good dental health practices.  Her lightning-strike energy and enthusiasm, combined with her skill at
interactive teaching techniques, makes her
classes fun and fast-paced. 

During her workshops, Jaclyn also screened children for obvious cavities and worked with Head Start’s staff to ensure those with cavities were referred to Community Dental or other dental practics more convenient for
their families.


Community Dental’s workshops extend our reach beyond the dental center into the community, helping to teach families the importance of early dental care.

Just look at these faces, these beautiful children. We want to keep them smiling and healthy for the rest of their lives.

Dental Care Across the Generations

At Community Dental we see patients of every age from 9 months to 99 years. They represent the past and, we hope, the future of dental health.  Harold Smith, who’s 85, first came to us a year ago.  Several of his teeth had to be extracted.  After his gums healed we began the process of creating dentures for him.  He has beautiful new teeth now, but adjusting to dentures takes time and they’re never quite the same as your own teeth.  Harold is getting the hang of it and is happy to be able to chew real food and smile without embarrassment, but we’d be happier if he’d never had to go through this ordeal at all.  Harold is a big social networker and likes to connect with people both in person and on Facebook.  Having his smile back has meant the world to him.

Zion Morton is just two years old.  Hecame in for his very first visit on the same day Harold had his final denture fitting.  He sat in his mom’s lap as Keri, one of our hygienists, cleaned his teeth and Dr. Barroso gave him a gentle examination.  He played with the dinosaur dental puppets and when he was ready to leave he got to pick out a toy.  Now Zion thinks coming to the dentist is fun.  His mom learned how to help him brush and floss his teeth and what foods and beverages will keep his teeth healthy.  She’s committed to bringing him in twice a year for checkups.  Zion has a great head start on a lifetime of good dental health.

Zion personifies Community Dental’s vision for Chester County. Too many people living in the county suffer the consequences of poor dental health—lack of self-confidence, poor academic performance, limited career opportunities and poor general health.  We’re honored to be able restore their appearance and eliminate their pain, but we can’t undo years of poor dental care.  Children like Zion who have a first visit by age one or two and receive care regularly will not only have beautiful smiles, they’ll perform better in school, become more employable and have better health for the rest of their lives.

 

Dental Health is a Family Value



Jose

Nine year old Jose sat comfortably in the dental chair. He'd had his check-up and cleaning and he was all smiles. He liked the feeling of just-cleaned teeth. He also looked forward to taking home a toy and a free book after his visit. His sister Aszaria, who's seven, was waiting her turn with Sellena, their mom. Their brother Kortez, the youngest at five years old, was due on the next day. Jose, Kortez and Aszaria have been coming to Community Dental every six months since 2011.


Keri and Aszaria













Sellena has become a big Community Dental fan.
“I love Jaclyn and Keri’s energy with the kids,” she told us.  “They get them interested in learning about their teeth.  The staff is so warm and they talk to the kids so they’re very relaxed about coming to the dentist.  And you’re right here in my community.  We walk by all the time and we can see in the big windows.  It makes the dentist's office less strange and scary.”

We’re excited to see more families like this one making Community Dental their dental home.  Not so long ago, most of our patients came in with emergencies.  Too often, by that time we had no choice but to extract teeth too damaged to save.  This family, and others like them, reflect our vision for Chester County’s future.  Their children are learning to feel good about coming to the dentists office. They’re not likely to suffer the pain of serious dental disease or the loss of education it can cause.  Most importantly, they’re getting a  head start on a life of good dental health.


 

 

Night of 10,000 Smiles

Feeling a little run down?  Need a tonic? 
We’ve got just what the doctor ordered. 
Community Dental’s second annual Night of 10,000 Smiles is just around the corner.  This year we’re featuring three new comdians and we promise a night of great food and lots of laughs.  This year’s “Doctors of Comedy” will be  Johhny Lampert, Buddy Fitzpatrick and Moody McCarthy.

Make your appointment now for a big dose of the best (dental ) medicine—a night of laughter.

When:    Saturday, November 16, 2013   7 – 10pm

Where:   Coatesville Country Club, 143 Reservoir Road, Coatesville, PA 19320

 Register Now!

For more information or to sponsor, contact Tamara Fox, tfox@chescodental.org or call 610-291-0516.

 

 

Mrs. J - The Ultimate Volunteer

Many of our patients have visited with volunteer Emily Purnell-Johnson by phone. “Mrs. J” makes calls every Tuesday morning to remind patients of their appointments. She frees the front office staff from this task so they can focus on incoming phone calls and those waiting at the front desk to check in. A 39-year veteran of the Chester County Health Department, Mrs. J has an interesting definition of “retirement.” On Tuesdays she works at Community Dental and Wednesdays at the Health Department. During her career there she connected with a young autistic employee who became very attached to her. She continues to work there as a volunteer so she can continue to mentor her young friend.

Her volunteer schedule doesn’t end there. Mondays and Thursdays she’s at Community Volunteers in Medicine in West Chester and two Saturdays a month she volunteers with an organization that serves the poor in Norristown.

Mrs. J. finds that “doing for others is very rewarding.” She’s brought a distinctive warmth to our appointment reminder calls. One of our patients told her, “You’re the first person who’s told me to have a blessed day!”

Community Dental Executive Director Regina Horton Lewis has known Mrs. J since Regina was a child. They lived in the same West Chester neighborhood. Regina aptly observed that “Mrs. J. has always been committed to giving back to the community. Since she retired, she works harder than anyone I know with a paying job!”

 

A New Smile Can Change a Life

During his first visit to Community Dental, James Cain looked down a lot and spoke very little.  He wouldn’t meet our eyes and we never saw him smile.  Just 25 years old, James had already seen too many of life’s challenges.  His family struggled financially and his father was severely disabled.  James had focused for years on helping his mother care for his father, deferring his own education and career plans so he could help at home.  He hadn’t thought at all about his health, least of all his dental health.  When we first saw him in 2012, he had so much dental disease that we had to extract 15 of his teeth and fill many more.

The process took months.  Because James was not working, and too self-conscious about his appearance to go to a job interview, his mother helped him with the cost of his care.  At first, James didn’t want to have the work done, but his mom convinced him.  She knew the difference having dentures would make first hand.  We’d completed a set for her earlier in the year.

Finally in March, James received two partial dentures.  On April, his birthday, he had his last adjustment.  That was when he let us take pictures—and we saw the first shy smile.  James told us how excited he was to get out there and get a job.  “I won’t be embarrassed to talk to people any more,” he told us.  As James was leaving, another young patient, herself only 27, was preparing to be fitted for dentures.  She asked if she could see James’ teeth and he obliged.  James’ beautiful new smile and enthusiasm were contagious and she told Dr. Barroso, “I can’t wait to have my smile back.”

Too many adults still come to us at a surprisingly young age needing dental extractions and partial or full dentures.  While we can restore their smiles and confidence, we look forward to the day when all of our patients come to us before such radical care is needed.

 

Regina Horton Lewis Receives the Rebecca Lukens Award

The city of Coatesville has been shaped over the years by the courage and dedication of bright, passionate women.  Rebecca Lukens set the stage by assuming control of Brandywine Ironworks and Nail Factory at a time when a woman running a business was almost unheard of.  A woman running an ironworks was unthinkable.  But not to Rebecca. In the face of her own family’s opposition and a financial panic in 1837 she persevered, When she retired in 1847,the ironworks was the nation’s premier manufacturer of boilerplate and Coatesville was a thriving, prosperous community.

 The Graystone Society’s Rebecca Lukens Award honors women who have followed Rebecca’s example through their leadership and commitment to the Coatesville community.  Community Dental’s Regina Horton Lewis was honored with this year’s award. In her acceptance speech, Regina shared stories of her struggle as a young black woman to break into IBM’s corporate culture in the 1970s.  She also illustrated how she’s applied the lessons she learned in her corporate experience and as a foster parent to her passion for helping others improve their lives and serve their community.  Those who know and work with Regina today recognize her as an outstanding example of servant leadership.  Community Dental is fortunate to have such an engaged community leader and accomplished woman as our Executive Director.

 

Keri Kilgore Celebrates Six Years at Community Dental

Keri Kilgore with a happy CCCDC patient.

Community Dental is blessed with clinical staff who bring a spirit of kindness and respect for our patients’ dignity to their work.  Hygienist Keri Kilgore exemplifies this spirit—as the dozens of testimonials we receive from her patients each year attest.

This year, Keri celebrates her sixth anniversary with Community Dental. She joined our team only a year after we opened our first clinical dental center.  Keri had worked for 10 years in private practice, but Community Dental was an entirely new experience.  She talks about the culture shock of meeting patients who had never seen a dentist, patients who had lost many or all of their teeth. Many of her patients had special needs, something else she’d never dealt with before.

These patients challenged and moved Keri.  She treated conditions she’d only seen in school before.  She saw teeth and gums so damaged she couldn’t imagine how her patients were able to endure the pain they must be feeling. She discovered that she had to become a teacher as well as a hygienist.  One pair of sisters she treated had never been to the dentist and had clearly not spent much time brushing or flossing their teeth.  They both had several cavities.  Their parents thought it didn’t matter because their baby teeth would fall out.  Keri taught the family that the girls’ permanent teeth and gums would be healthier if their baby teeth were healthy and that the habits they developed at a young age would impact their dental health for the rest of their lives.

A few weeks ago Keri’s skills were tested by a little boy who came with his classmates for the School Sealant Program.  This eleven year old budding lawyer demanded to see the permission form his parents had filled out.  He wanted to know “who gave you permission to torment me?” He took off his shoes, he refused to open his mouth, he tried every possible delaying tactic to avoid having Keri examine him and place his sealants.  Keri gave him the straight truth—he wasn’t leaving without sealants and it wouldn’t hurt at all.  He finally got his sealants and it really didn’t hurt at all.

A few days later a three year old patient who’d seen Keri before ran right through the waiting room and jumped into the dental chair, happy to see Keri and have her teeth cleaned.

Keri says that the best part of working at Community Dental is the bond she develops with her patients. “I love that people ask to have me work with them, “ A hygienist with Keri’s skill, not just at examining and cleaning teeth, but at diffusing patients’ fear, changes people’s attitude toward coming to the dentist and motivates patients to take better care of their teeth.  Our job is not just to make care accessible to everyone, but to help everyone feel safe and unafraid in the dentist’s office.  Keri’s commitment to her patients exemplifies our spirit and we’re proud to have her on our team.  We hope six years will only be the beginning of her time at Community Dental.