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Dental clinic hopes to bridge funding gap Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell Dental hygienist Melanie Breidenthal, left, and dentist Todd Holton, right, volunteer their time and skill at the Children's Dental Clinic in Medford. A 10 percent cut in United Way funding has left a big hole in the clinic's $40,000 annual budget, while families continue to require basic dental care. By JONEL ALECCIA Mail Tribune The 6-year-old with the pink shirt and the ponytail sits up in the dental chair, smiling at the notion of her shiny new "crown." "We made you a princess today!" says Deb Silva, taking one last look at the stainless steel cap on a tiny tooth. But Silva, director of the Children's Dental Clinic of Jackson County, knows that the fairy-tale spin is for the first-grader's benefit alone. In reality, there's nothing magic about the free service that provided the costly crown to repair nerve damage in the child's mouth. Her low-income Hispanic family has no dental insurance and can't afford to pay for dental care. Like hundreds of thousands of Jackson County families since 1957, they sought help from the clinic when the only alternative was to do without. Now, however, the clinic itself is facing tough financial times, says Silva. A 10 percent cut in United Way funding and increases in treatment costs have left a cavity in the clinic's $40,000 annual budget, even as demand for services goes up. "We can tell just by the number of applications," says Silva. "We run on the school year calendar and usually by this time of year, if we got one a week, that would be average. Now we're getting three to five applications a day." That amounts to more than 100 extra patients this school year, an increase of about one-third in the clinic's caseload. So far, the 40 volunteer dentists and about a dozen volunteer hygienists who rotate through the clinic are keeping up with demand, Silva says. Each year, they donate nearly $200,000 worth of services ranging from fillings and oral surgery to basic preventive care. But the cost of serving kids is going up. Last year, the average cost was $52.81 per appointment; this year, it's $62.20, or about $7,200 overall, clinic figures show. Silva hopes a $7,200 grant from the Oregon Dental Foundation will help plug that hole, and that proceeds from other charitable pleas will materialize as well. But in a year of economic recession, cuts in state services to vulnerable families and more pressure than ever on private funding sources, dentist Todd Holton - who volunteers to support the project - acknowledges it's difficult. "With the budget constraints that Oregon is facing right now, there are not a lot of good answers," he says. "I don't know what you can do to change that." In the meantime, families continue to require basic dental care. To be eligible for service, clients must meet federal poverty guidelines, Silva says. For a family of four, for example, income can be no more than $1,500 a month or about $18,000 a year. Most patients at the clinic are covered by no other source, including the Oregon Health Plan. "Without this, they wouldn't have any kind of oral education, they wouldn't be able to get their cavities fixed or their problems addressed," says Melanie Breidenthal, a registered dental hygienist who has been volunteering at the clinic for nearly a decade. "It's a good thing." That notion is echoed by patients like Adrianne Buchanan, an 18-year-old North Medford High School student waiting to have cavities treated. Buchanan's mom is a single student at Southern Oregon University studying to be a nurse's assistant. Most of Buchanan's dental care has come from the clinic and she's happy with it. "They're wonderful here," she says. "Every time I've come in, I've never had any pain." Infusions of cash aren't all that can help the clinic first established by the Medford Kiwanis Club, supporters say. If dentists and hygienists had their way, Jackson County's water would be fluoridated, Horton, Silva and Breidenthal agree. More parents would learn early about "Nursing Bottle Syndrome," tooth decay that occurs when babies are put to bed with bottles of anything other than water. More children would drink far less soda pop, and they would brush - "and FLOSS!" Silva admonishes - far more. With sufficient funding and increased education, the need for the center's services would decrease, even as their resources would increase. But for Silva and other supporters, right now that's just another fairy tale. The Children's Dental Clinic of Jackson County is tucked into the basement of Rogue Valley Medical Center in Medford. Call 608-4249 for information. Reach reporter JoNel Aleccia at 776-4465, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Ottaway Newspapers, Inc. | Dow Jones & Co., Inc. | Privacy | Contact Us Copyright � 2001 Mail Tribune, Inc.