California’s drought, warm winter weather, and 508 volunteers combined to make the School of Dentistry’s twenty-fourth annual Clinic With A Heart a comfortable and rewarding Sunday morning for underserved Inland Empire community residents.
“The event was a success,” says Mary Hartwell, manager, Dental Clinics of the January 12 event. “The results showed in the numbers and no one was turned away”—310 total patients, 296 adults and 14 pediatric patients.
“We also had great response from all who volunteered and we got done the earliest ever.” Ms. Hartwell was particularly pleased that “the entire OMFS Department, staff, faculty, and residents participated. And they were needed since we had so many extractions.”
As usual, the advance work of Ms. Hartwell and her team of administrative assistants put order on potential chaos by arranging in advance the assignments of the 508 volunteers. LLUSD participants included: staff (66); faculty members (44); residents (11); from IDP2 (11); from IDP1 (18); D4 (38); D3 (64); D2 (63); D1 (58); 36 from DH2 (BS); 40 from DH1 (BS); two from DH2 (AS); and four from DH1 (AS). LLU School of Nursing provided eight volunteer nursing students, while dental assistant volunteers were contributed by Chaffey College (3), Riverside Regional Occupational Programs (6), and Riverside City College (10).
One gentleman, who has been a regular Clinic With A Heart patient for years, made a special effort to let Mary Harwell know he felt it was the best organized and friendliest year in his experience with the annual event.
In her second year as a sponsor and volunteer with the Clinic, Proctor & Gamble scientific relations manager, Mary Lontchar, RDH, MA, “marveled at the seamless integration of dental professionals to provide efficient dental care to appreciative patients. I was very impressed with the 2014 Clinic With A Heart, because of the logistical coordination and volunteerism displayed by staff, students and faculty. Patients from the community were treated with utmost respect and care.” Procter & Gamble each year provides Clinic With A Heart with T-shirts for all the volunteers, oral healthcare products given to each patient, and roughly $1,000 toward the Worthy Patient Fund for pediatric patients.
Since its beginning in 1990, 24 years of Clinic With A Heart has contributed $592,306 in dental services. While adding to that total, this year’s 508 volunteers combined to perform $41,724 worth of dental care to those who need it most.
