A dental practice in the south coast of the USA has decided to offer a free dental service on a first come first served basis.

The Fairhaven practice, which is based in the town of Fairhaven, will begin offering this new service from the 11^th February, but it will actually be offered by a separate not for profit organisation within the dental practice.

Speaking with local reporters, Dr Scott Harelick, one of the dentists involved in the scheme, said: “The goal is mainly to provide emergency services for free that people maybe have been neglecting because of hard financial times or other reasons [and] because we felt that people who are probably in the most trouble also have difficulty getting time off of work.”

The new service will offer patients a range of free services including examinations, X-rays and if there is time available the team will also carry out single-tooth extractions or sedative fillings. The dental practitioners also say they will offer some teeth cleaning although this will be limited to surface cleaning.

Dentistry in the USA is going through some major changes, but with a shortage of dental practitioners and a growing number of people who are either underserved or unable to afford treatment this new service will be welcomed. Could it be start of something different?

Dr. Harelick said: “We really want to try to get those people who are having pain, discomfort concerns. We want to, for one thing, try to get them back into the world of dentistry. I have so many patients that come in and say, ‘Well, I haven’t been to a dentist in 10 years.’

“I think the biggest thing that some of these people have been neglecting [is] having their regular dental checkups, and by letting that go, small problems they could be having — such as needing a small filling — can turn into a big problem, such as needing a root canal or a tooth extracted.”

He added: “When you need a tooth extraction or you need a root canal, it’s because you have an infection.”

Not content in just offering a dental service to their fellow citizens, Dr. Harelick and his team are thinking of visiting South America on a dental mission. “We were discussing going on a medical mission to some places in South America and realized that there’s really such a need right here in our own backyard,” he said.

Tags: free dental services, free dental services USA, free dental treatments, USA

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 9:50 am and is filed under General, Gums. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.