MCC dental hygiene program serves record number of community members for free
Some of Mesa Community College’s dental hygienists-in-training addressed more local patients’ oral health concerns than in years past during their annual free screenings.
The program, headed by second year clinical coordinator of the MCC Allied Health Department Dawn Brause, aimed to give students a preview of work life in the dentist’s office while also serving the community.
“We’re doing a free service, a cursory exam, an oral cancer screening, we’re doing an intraoral exam and we’re checking the gum tissue and things like that,” Brause said.
Patients can also purchase a copy of their X-ray for $20, according to Brause.
This year’s event saw a record amount of patients helped, according to Brause. Of the nearly 50 patients seen, over half showed signs of periodontal disease, also known as gum disease. Fortunately for the patients, none showed signs of oral cancer.
Many of the participating students were outgoing final-semester students looking to prepare themselves for their future careers.
“In order to get [the students] ready for the workforce and to meet our curriculum standards and accreditation body requirements, they have to evolve their skills and see more complex periodontal patients with disease,” Brause stated.
The services occurred at the Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health (ASDOH) at A.T. Still University in Mesa on Jan. 25 from 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
The waiting room at ASDOH saw a steady influx of local patients. Jessica Einwaechter, a second-year dental hygiene student who helped coordinate the event, attributed this to their outreach efforts.
“We collectively put out advertisements for this so that we can reach people in the community who may need low-cost dental care, specifically people that are looking for cleanings rather than restorative work,” Einwaechter explained.
One of those community members looking for low-cost dental care was Mahonri Contreras. He heard about the program through a family friend, according to him.
“It has been a while since I had anything done, and I did go to [another] dentist and my quote that they gave me kind of shocked me,” Contreras shared.
Other participating students included freshmen co-facilitating the event, such as Caitlin Espinosa of the MCC Red Mountain campus.
”I’m just making sure that everything is running smoothly in the front end, and then later on, I’ll just be helping in regards to making sure [the graduating students] get correct documentation for their patients, cleaning their room and just making sure everything goes easier for them and also to prepare myself for next semester,” Espinosa said.
The students’ hard work paid off and resulted in positive reactions from patients, according to Brause.
”They were very grateful…a lot of them are going to be coming back,” Brause claimed.
Brause also noted that while the free event occurs once every semester, students will also be conducting non-complementary exams for new patients every Monday and Tuesday until March to screen for periodontal disease.
