Errol Williams joined a crowd that started lining up on Sherman Parkway at 4 a.m. Friday — not to buy rock concert tickets, but to see a dentist.
Williams was in pain from a broken tooth. He joined the line outside the New Haven Field House at 5:30 for a shot to become one of the lucky 1,000 or so people from all over the state who would get free dental care by the end of the day.
Williams, 20, is out of school and works just part-time, so he has no health insurance, and definitely no dental coverage. When he arrived in the cold before dawn at the Connecticut Mission of Mercy mobile clinic, he joined a long line of those who had come even earlier.
He was worried he might have come too late.
“There were more people than I anticipated,” he said, “but they gave out wrist bands and tickets, so then I felt like I would get in.” He described a “stage by stage” process of going from one table to another, giving information, then being triaged to have his need evaluated, then being sent on to one of the volunteer dentists to take care of him. He said people had been helpful and friendly.
“I’m looking to get a root canal,” Williams said, “but it [the broken tooth] is in the back and they might not be doing it on the back teeth today, so I might have to get it extracted.”
Dr. Bruce Tandy (on the right in photo, consulting with a volunteer physician Suzanne Lagarde) practices in Vernon and Coventry. He’s president-elect of the Connecticut Dental Association and sits on the steering committee of CTMOM (Connecticut Mission of Mercy).
At 10:30 a.m. over 800 people had registered, and some were still in line.
“We’re going to be close to the 1,000 we were shooting for,” he said. Many of those waiting to be seen were young people who no longer qualified for dental care under the state’s HUSKY plan. “They don’t have any Medicaid oral health coverage, and that’s the population that’s probably most at risk now, especially with some of the proposed budget cuts that may be coming down the pike.”
The governor is looking to eliminate adult dental coverage for low-income residents, except for emergencies. (Click here for story on that.)
“Right now they don’t pay very much, and to eliminate it totally we feel is unjust,” Tandy said. “The piece that we’re really concerned with, on top of that, is the need for pre-authorization for any treatment that we do on the HUSKY kids.”
He noted that about 18 months ago the state settled a $20 million lawsuit to raise HUSKY fees to come close to covering costs, “so over the past six months we’ve increased the number of dentists who are participating in the HUSKY program from 190 to over 800, so the capacity in the system has increased significantly.”
Enes Demir, 14, of West Haven (pictured in chair) came to get his teeth cleaned and a cavity filled. Dr. James Mendillo of Branford is shown taking care of business.
Nancy Murray from East Haddam drove four young people, including two of her children, who either have adult HUSKY — “and no one takes adult HUSKY — or they can’t afford dental insurance at 21, working for $8 or $9 an hour,” she lamented. They arrived at the field house at 4:15 a.m.
“It was like a madhouse,” she said. “The line was around the corner of the building.”
She said they were “frozen to the cement” while waiting in line in the cold, but they decided it was a trip worth making. “There were volunteers who started handing out tickets around 4:45. They gave out a thousand tickets and people who came at 5 a.m. couldn’t get tickets.”
That turned out to be a miscount. Some people arriving as late as 9:30 a.m. did get tickets and were told they’d be seen.
Almost 1,000 volunteers will be staffing the clinic on Friday and Saturday, treating up to 2,000 patients in more than 100 dental chairs.
Thank goodness for these people & their volunteering spirit. I went to this event--not as a volunteer but a recipient of care. It was well-organized, clear, and I never felt at a loss. There was always direction & a helpful person to take me to the next area.
I arrived at 4:30, and was 459th in line.
People continued to arrive--and get in--right up until about 5:45, when they shut down the line. Even then, they positioned 2 volunteers at the back, who let arrivals know that they were at capacity, but that the new arrivals could come back early tomorrow.
After a very long wait which was actually pleasent because I spent it talking to interesting people (and I was well-fed by the volunteers!) I was put into triage. I had come because I haven't been to a dentist in 15 years. I have no dental insurance, and have had pain in my mouth lately--I was worried it was something serious & the idea of paying 1,000s out of pocket or giving up what I naively assumed would be 2 hours (closer to 8 than 2!) seemed like a good trade-off.
Triage was friendly & professional. They had some confusion in the way they saw people (the ordering) but the volunteers realized right away, acknowledged they'd gotten out of order, apologized, and then restructured it. It was really commendable: they were direct, apologetic, and fixed the situation immediately.
Triage quickly discovered I had no cavities at all--just bruxism--and sent me on for my first cleaning in 15 years. Again, direction was constant, helpful, & made the long wait seem fast. When they realized they had more people for cleaning then other issues, they re-directed staff, opening up a second cleaning station in just a few minutes.
Then they gave us all a short class on proper technique (Who knew: it's better to brush gently. Excessively hard brushing contributes to gumline recession, which leads to dental pain) & put us through a short,painless exit process.
During the exit process they also counseled individuals who still had dental issues--or children, or who wanted to know how to see dentists in the future--finding inexpensive dental options in your area.
Paul Wessel's Sustinet people were there, engaging us in lobbying efforts: they had individuals write hand-written letters urging Jodi Rell to not cut funding to health care.
I was extremely impressed with the event, & the very professional & friendly volunteers. Thank you!