Moana Tulua and her sister Angie sat together nervously in the waiting area of a pop-up dental clinic in downtown San Jose. So they did what any teenagers might do: pull out a phone and snap a quick video for social media.
“We have a little YouTube channel, and right now we’re just vlogging,” Moana, 16, said. “We were talking about how we both were supposed to get fillings, but now we’re getting root canals,” said her sister, 13, adding, “It’s scary, but I just get used to it.”
The sisters were two of roughly 1,500 Santa Clara County residents expected to receive free teeth cleanings, X-rays and oral surgeries this weekend at an impromptu clinic inside a massive blue and white tent behind the San Jose McEnery Convention Center.
Around a thousand dentists, dental assistants and community members are volunteering at the 100-chair clinic sponsored by the Santa Clara County Dental Foundation. The goal is to provide dental care to those without regular access to it, whether due to a lack of insurance, language barriers or immigration status.
“We’re eliminating infection. We’re relieving pain. We’re restoring confidence and self-esteem,” Robyn Alongi, the event coordinator of the clinic, said over the whirr of dentist drills and other tools humming throughout the tent hangar. “Oral health is super important to overall health, as well as mental well-being.”
About 29% of people in the U.S. don’t have dental insurance, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And 23% of teenage children from low-income families nationwide have untreated cavities, twice that of children from higher-income homes.
Dr. Elizabeth Demichelis, a dentist from Modesto volunteering at the clinic, said many people across the state don’t have dentist offices in their communities. “Here, we can meet them where they’re at and give them the care they need,” she said.
The Santa Clara County Dental Foundation hopes to make the clinic an annual or semi-annual event. It raised around $400,000 this year and is looking for additional donors to ensure more clinics going forward.
Foundation President Dr. John Pisacane said he hopes to continue helping people like one man who was struggling to land a job because he was missing a front tooth.
“We might have changed his life because he could get a job and support himself and his family,” he said.
Before being led to the dental chair, Angie learned she would actually need to have a tooth extracted. She was anxious but said she was still glad for the opportunity to have the tooth taken care of, putting on a brave face behind the plastic eye shield.
Moana, meanwhile, was undergoing her root canal in another part of the tent. She sat reclined beneath the bright light of the dentist’s lamp, giving a stoic thumbs up as two dental assistants finished the procedure.
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