Dental program seeks patients

The Del Mar College Dental Hygiene Clinic needs volunteers for the Dental Hygiene Program. The program provides patients with dental hygiene services at no cost. Students in the program perform services such as oral screenings, teeth cleaning, and more.  

Students are supervised by the faculty of the program during the process. These instructors are required to have a bachelor’s degree in dental hygiene as well as clinical experience to teach at the clinic.  

“In a given year, we provide the community with over half a million dollars of dental hygiene services. You’re talking about cleanings, deep cleanings, sealants, X-rays, fluoride, all of that,” said Monica Martinez, assistant instructor. “We are trying to see about maybe getting grant money. We are a healthcare facility but we’re also still a class.”

The clinic must provide the students with basic supplies such as gloves and gowns. 

According to Martinez, the students can run into problems concerning the number of patients they have during the program.

“For example, the students from the program must go out and find their own patients to work on. Since the clinic is also their classroom, they do not have the luxury of just showing up and being provided with the patients,” Martinez said. 

The students are required to get a certain number of hours with the patients, but no patients mean no hours. For them to pass, they must have patients, which requires them to rely on people they know.  

Another problem that a student might face, Martinez mentioned, is being from out of town.

“They don’t have relatives or friends who live here. This can make it a little more difficult for them to find patients,” Martinez said, adding that the program relies heavily on community involvement and word of mouth.  

The clinic accepts anyone willing to come in. They do have to be at least 3 years old. Besides the age, there is no exact list of requirements for who is qualified. It depends on the patient. An initial examination is done to see where the patients are at with their oral healthcare. After this first exam, the clinic will let the patient know if they are qualified to continue with the dental hygiene treatment. 

Also, if there is an issue that is medically stopping the patient from being treated, the clinic reaches out to the patient’s healthcare physician to let them know they are trying to provide the patient with dental hygiene care. The patient can get a release form from the physician allowing the patient to continue with the dental hygiene treatment.  

Martinez emphasized that the services for dental hygiene are preventive services only. If the patients want actual dental services done, for example fillings or extractions, they will have to go to a dentist. 

Martinez said the program has a social media page that is used to let the community know what they are doing or what they are offering. They use it to show off all the technology that the state-of-the-art facility has to offer as well. It also provides the community with an updated schedule for the facility and lets them know about closures due to holidays or even campus closures for any given reason.  

 The clinic is in Health Science Building 1 at the Windward Campus. Spring hours for the Dental Hygiene Clinic are from 9 a.m. to noon and 1-4 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to noon Friday.  

To schedule an appointment with Amanda Canales, patient care assistant, call 361-698-2854 or for more information visit https://www.delmar.edu/offices/dental-clinic/index.html. The program also has a Facebook page, Del Mar College Dental Programs. 

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