Mobile dental clinic sets up shop.

Byline: GARRET JAROS The Register-Guard

Free dentistry isn't exactly breakfast with God - but it is salvation for those in aching need.

Vincent Smithhart avoids hard foods and hot foods and thinks pulling all his lower teeth may be the only way to stop the pain.

"My lower jaw is too small and all my teeth are crammed together so that I can't floss between them or brush all of them," the 22-year-old homeless man said. "I hope they'll be able to pull some teeth, or at least give me something for the pain."

Smithhart was one of the first patients at a mobile dental clinic that visited Eugene on Saturday and provided about $2,000 worth of free care to low-income people in need.

The clinic is a partnership provided by the St. Vincent de Paul Society in Eugene and Northwest Medical Teams in Portland.

The motor coach clinic is one of eight operated by Northwest Medical, a group started by a Salem businessman who gathered the first team in 1979 after seeing a TV program detailing the need for care in Cambodia.

St. Vincent de Paul anted up $300, half the cost of bringing the clinic from its home base in Salem.

But it was a local volunteer dentist and staff that made the day possible.

Terry Tennant, a Eugene dentist who's traveled the world with Northwest Medical, said there's a great need for free local dentistry.

Tennant is only the second of approximately 160 dentists in the Eugene-Springfield area to volunteer for the mobile unit. But she's quick to defend her colleagues, many of whom haven't heard about the clinics.

"I only found out about the program through a convention in Portland," she said. "A lot of dentists in town don't know this exists. But they will."

About 15 to 20 dentists volunteer their time each month at Eugene's White Bird Clinic, which offers care to low-income people.

White Bird offers emergency services and regular care with fees 15 to 50 percent lower than most private practices. That's because it offers simpler services and doesn't have the overhead of private practices that use costly machinery to provide specialized care, Tennant said.

White Bird's services are in such high demand that there's a waiting list for those seeking regular care.

Smithhart could consider himself doubly lucky - if that's possible when in pain - because he received important care for free and learned that the future of his teeth are, literally, in his own hands.

"These are going to be real sore and you're not going to want to floss or brush, but keep after it or we'll be right back where we started," volunteer hygienist Carol Beeson tells him. "You have nice teeth and a lot of teeth so if I never see you again, the best thing you can do is take care of your teeth by brushing and flossing."

She then embarks on a brush-and-floss demonstration while Smithhart watches in a mirror. She removes a buildup of tartar - mineralized plaque - that she likens to barnacles on a boat. She also urges Smithhart to quit smoking - for the damage it does to his teeth, never mind his lungs.

Tennant, whose last foreign mission was in Guatemala, said clients like Smithhart have it better than they may realize.

"Here our nutritional standards are a little higher so we don't have the developmental issues," she said. "Here I'll see one or two teeth that are unsalvageable. In other countries, they'll come in with all the teeth devastated."

CAPTION(S):

BRIAN DAVIES / The Register-Guard Hygienist Carol Beeson examines Sandra Young's abscessed tooth as the Northwest Medical Team provided free dental care in Eugene on Saturday.