Volunteer to help at our next Clinic |  www.dentalaccessdays.org 
March 2017 
News from our most recent clinic


"I just wanted you to know that I thoroughly enjoyed myself at the most recent Dental Access Day. The entire program was very well organized, staffed, and friendly. I truly appreciate all of you and your daughter's efforts in bringing needed dental care to the underserved. Please put my email address on the list for the next one." 
Dr. Grant Sims - new volunteer

Our Partners

Our 9th Dental Access Days took place at the Willye White Park Recreation Center in Rogers Park Chicago, March 17 and 18. We partnered with A Just Harvest (AJH) and the Chicago Park District.

A Just Harvest is a social support and advocacy agency that operates near the rec center in Rogers Park. One of AJH's many programs is a kitchen that serves about 150 free dinners nightly, 365 days a year. That puts AJH in touch with those most in need in the area and they helped us get the word out about the clinic.

The Willye White Rec center was a perfect facility for us. The staff there, Corey, Valerie, Tom, Stephan, and Maria, couldn't have been more helpful and supportive of our work. We were really fortunate to have made such a great connection.


New This Time

New at this clinic was our own Nomad. Nomad is a hand held x-ray source we use in our digital imaging system. An invisible benefit of the Nomad and digital sensor we have is the very low level of radiation needed to create images. It's a benefit to everyone.

We also added a new Cavitron so we now have two.  Cavitrons are ultrasonic devices used to clean teeth. Without access to dentistry and regular cleanings, most of our patients have heavy plaque build ups. Plaque build ups are a major cause of tooth decay and gum disease. Cavitrons work like high pressure power washers for teeth and clean with much better efficiency than mechanical scraping.  Our hygienists are able to complete cleanings on a lot more patients using them.  

We also acquired two new delivery systems - the devices that run the drills, suctions, and water spray at each chair. 

All of the equipment mentioned here was purchased through a grant from the St Peter Legacy in Mission fund managed by Northfield Community Church.  

Thank you Northfield Community Church !!

Pre-Clinic

Our equipment manager, Scott Decker, replaced most of the fittings on our compressed air system, reducing air leaks.  Scott's calculation is that the reduction in air use will result in fewer compression cycles and substantially increase the life span of our compressors. The compressors are the heart of our clinic operation.

Our supply person, Kelly Kowalski from Mike Nolan & Chad Freund's dental office, did another stellar job making sure everyone had all the supplies needed to perform their duties. The number and variety of dental "stuff" we need to have on hand never ceases to amaze us. Kelly made sure it was all there.

Our advising dentist, Dr. Chad Freund, reviewed all our hand pieces to insure we had what was needed, both quantity and capability. As a result we bought a new Hygienist hand piece and will be buying some new low speed motors for our next event.

Our technical guy, Alex Botvinnik, adapted some donated desktop computers and monitors so we now have 3 dedicated display stations for our digital imaging system. 

Our results



A quick note about these numbers. Jean Andreas, our meal and refreshment crew coordinator transcribes the numbers from our treatment sheets to the spreadsheets that provides our totals. When she turned the spreadsheet over she commented that though the total number of patients over all was lower, the number of procedures per person appeared to be up. After pulling all the totals it's apparent she was right. The dollar amount of services rendered is really close to the last clinic but we saw 22 fewer patients at Willye. 

Here is a possible explanation. This was our first visit to the Rogers Park area. But the last clinic we are comparing to was at the Levy Senior Center, a place we have staged 7 previous clinics. It's possible that at Rogers Park we were dealing with folks that hadn't seen a dentist in a very long time, whereas we know, from recognizing faces, a large percentage of people we see at Levy are folks we've seen before and their mouths are healthier. 

Another observation: our restoration numbers per patient almost doubled but our number of extractions per person only went up by 40%. That may be because we were dealing with a younger group and we are saving teeth that would have needed to be pulled in future years.

Next Clinic - November 3rd and 4th in Evanston

We hope it's obvious that our goal is to steadily improve our clinics and delivery of care. We are blessed to have the talented energetic volunteers that make this much needed ministry of healing possible. But maintaining a full roster for each clinic continues to be our biggest challenge.  We can't add additional clinic events and grow unless we increase the number of dental professionals volunteering.  

We're told the problem is our visibility; not enough people know about us.  Assuming that's correct 
we're asking for your help: Please spread the word by telling the dental providers you are in contact with about us and encourage them to participate.

Our next clinic will be back in Evanston at the Levy Senior Center, November 3 and 4. More details are available on our website  www.dentalaccessdays.org or on Facebook at Dental Access Days

Thanks again for your continued support. Our world WILL be a better place as long as we help and work to make it better. 

Heather McKinley and Bill McKinley



Dental Access Days | 847-290-0002 | dentalaccessIL@gmail.com |   http://www.dentalaccessdays.org
221 Lively Blvd
Elk Grove Village, IL 60007