Samaritan Center gets $736,509 grant for dental clinic

Low-income patients now will have five times the opportunity to obtain dental services from the Samaritan Center in Jefferson City.

The Missouri Foundation for Health recently awarded a three-year grant of $736,509 to the Samaritan Center's dental clinic.

The center now can provide services 15 hours each week, in contrast to three hours previously. Hiring a new dental hygienist, receptionist and assistant through the grant funding will help the center maintain its new service hours.

The clinic will be open each morning from 8 a.m.-noon and sometimes on Friday afternoon. Patients will be seen by appointment only.

Fourteen local dentists are volunteering their services, but the center could use at least 10 more dentist volunteers, Samaritan Center Deputy Director Anne Carmichael said.

"We've identified a huge need," said Dr. Valerie McDavid, a dentist and volunteer at the Samaritan Center.

The money provides a way for the Samaritan Center to buy a digital x-ray machine, sterilizer, ultrasonic cleaner, three computers, a server, copier and other supplies.

"It's a wonderful opportunity to join the 21st century, McDavid said.

Low-income adults lose their teeth at younger ages than other adults because of poor hygiene and eating habits.

"The poor have nowhere else but free clinics like ours to turn for dental care," Carmichael said in a press release

Patients visiting the center's dental clinic can obtain three services: cleaning, extraction and fillings.

"Our clients wait until they're in pain to come. They're not like the rest of us who make two appointments a year," she said.

The Samaritan Center now will start giving out one gallon of milk and one pound of cheese to each family coming through the pantry and one tooth brush and one tube of tooth paste.

The Samaritan's Center is the fourth largest of Missouri's 270 food pantries. About 14,000 people in the Samaritan Center service area are below poverty level. That service area includes Cole, Moniteau, Maries, Miller Osage and Southern Callaway Counties.

Contact reporter Christina Stueve at cstueve@newstribune.com