Filling the gaps in dental care

May 25, 2009

The waiting room of a dental clinic for the uninsured is filled with stories of just how bad a toothache can get.

Juleah Best buys temporary fillings at a drugstore to relieve a decaying tooth.

The word "temporary" aptly describes them.

"Every time I inhale, it hurts my top and bottom jaw, clear up to my temple," said Best, a 29-year-old single mother who hasn't been to the dentist in more than a decade.

Marchia Dolbow, 51, won't drink anything cold for fear of aggravating exposed nerves in her mouth. The physical pain isn't the worst thing, though; it's the ache of how she looks with only seven teeth in her mouth.

"I have been turned down for jobs I knew I qualified for, but because of my appearance, they say, 'I'm sorry, we're not hiring.' "

The Beach women were among 26 people who showed up in mid-May for the Beach Health Clinic's first free dental clinic.

The dental services were a collaborative effort that involved volunteer dentists, the Navy, Old Dominion University, funding from foundations and companies, and the Beach Health Clinic, which serves the uninsured of Virginia Beach.

Dental care is a gaping hole for the uninsured in Hampton Roads, according to a community health survey commissioned by Sentara Healthcare five years ago. Community health professionals tagged dental care as one of the top medical services the uninsured had trouble finding, even higher than prescriptions and mental health care.

They often turn to emergency rooms instead. During a one-year period starting in 2003, there were 1,577 cases of uninsured people showing up in Sentara hospital emergency rooms with problems that would have been better treated in a dental office.

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