One dentist office in Guelph is celebrating its fifth year of providing a free day of dental care this month to adults who need it, while a second practice is following suit with a similar event of its own.
Dr. John Pate’s Westwood Dental Group at 530 Willow Road will once again hold its Dentistry from the Heart event on Friday, June 22.
Over the last four years, the practice has provided an estimated $87,259 worth of free dental care to adults during the previous four events, said Lisa Moore, who takes care of marketing for the clinic.
“We normally see about 100 people, but the first 50 are guaranteed,” said Moore.
People can request either one filling, one extraction or a cleaning.
Service is provided on a first-come, first-served basis and registration begins at 7:30 a.m.
“We see a lot of seniors. We see a broad range of people from different backgrounds. A lot of our patients that come to this event have come year after year, so there is a lot of repeat people and this is their dental care,” said Moore.
People are encouraged to bring a chair, snacks and, if the weather requires it, an umbrella.
Dentistry from the Heart is a not-for-profit organization that is dedicated to providing free dental services to people in need.
Staff at the clinic donate their time during the event and Moore said 31 generous sponsors make the day possible.
“It’s a feel good day for the whole staff and our day to give back to the community,” she said.
The full list of sponsors are listed on the clinic’s web site.
On June 16, Bisson Dentistry on 199 Woolwich Street is hosting its own event that it is calling Big Heart Dentistry.
Registration begins at 7:30 a.m.
The clinic is a little unsure of what to expect participating in its first event of this kind, said Bisson Dentistry marketing director Jennifer Dunsmoor.
“I am a little unsure of what to expect. I know similar events throughout other communities and in our own have drawn large numbers of appeal,” said Dunsmoor.
Similar to the Westwood event, patients can request either one filling, one extraction or a cleaning and the clinic is committing to seeing at least 30 people.
“We will try to see more if time allows for it,” said Dunsmoor.
She notes the event is not in affiliation with the Dentistry from the Heart charity and Bisson Dentistry has its own community partners supporting the event.
Like the event at Westwood, staff are volunteering their time to help people in need in the community.
No proof of need is required to receive treatment at either event and both require patients to be 18 years of age or older.
Dunsmoor said Bisson Dentistry is relying on the honour system to the people receiving its services.
“We are going to assume most people, if they have the means or insurance or finances to afford dental care regularly, they might not want to line up on a Saturday at 7:30 for what could be hours of wait time,” she said.
Dunsmoor expects Big Heart Dentistry volunteers to see people from all walks of life that day, not just people living in poverty.
“It goes way beyond that in our community, we have a lot of working class citizens that don’t have the extra money to afford regular dental care and maybe don’t have benefits to help with that,” said Dunsmoor.
“I think we are going to see a demographic of clients that are in low income, but then we are going to have some that don’t have the extra income and haven’t had a cleaning in years. A lot of our seniors don’t have the means to pay for that and some people that are new to the community don’t know where to go,” she added.
