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Donations Needed!
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Salt Lake Donated Dental Services (SLDDS) requires funding for its Indigent Care Clinic. As there are
no social insurance mechanisms for impoverished men and women without children, the program must support itself. Ours is the UnInsured's only access to emergency dental care and treatment.
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The Need For Donated Dental Services
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The Salt Lake Valley Oral Health Task Force estimates that 70,000 low-income residents have unmet dental needs. 36% of the Utah population has dental disease compared to 29% nationally. Patient demographics include an average age of 34;
45% are Hispanic; 25% are female heads of households. "Emerging" in the caseloads are the Severely Disabled and Frail Elderly with no dental providers. All patients live below the 100% federal poverty standard.
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Response of SLDDS
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Born of service-club zeal, the agency opened in 1990. Since then, it has provided over $4 million worth of free care to 20,000 patients. The centerpiece of this operation is Volunteer Dentists and Hygienists. One Dentist is now present 90% of the time and two are on 5-10 shifts per month. To attract and hold this Corps of Professionals, SLDDS maintains a complete dental practice and state-of-the-art facilities. SLDDS is the largest Volunteer Dental Corps in the country, if not the world. A counterpart in Denver, for example, has only 10% of the Volunteer hours.
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Service Model
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Whenever possible, SLDDS providers save teeth rather than "solving" the problem cheaply by simple extraction. Besides emergency care, there is:
- Restorative Dentistry
- Prosthetics
- Root Canal Therapy
- Oral Surgery.
Sealants and child prophys have been initiated in recent months. Also undertaken were Wednesday evenings and weekly Facial Trauma availabilities. Long-term benefits include enabling people to eat more nutritiously and increase self-esteem (an oft-recurring barrier to seeking employment). The Community's health system sees reductions in dental-related hospital utilization.
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Funding SLDDS
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This "infrastructure" approach costs $350,350 per year; 30-45% may eventually be captured through partial (state) reimbursements. On a typical day, 15 patients will undergo 30 procedures. We not only meet the needs of our challenging patients' circumstances but also protect the health of our Volunteers and that of the larger community. (A SLDDS professional maybe an HIV-AIDS or TB Carrier's first or only contact with the health care system.) Each dollar contributed to the operation results in $3 worth of care. Contributions truly do complement golden Volunteer efforts. High-quality care can bring dignity to men, women and children who would otherwise suffer the often-irreparable consequences of neglect.
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