{"id":1252,"date":"2009-03-20T09:02:25","date_gmt":"2009-03-20T16:02:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/?p=1252"},"modified":"2009-03-20T10:21:53","modified_gmt":"2009-03-20T17:21:53","slug":"dental-van-offers-seniors-free-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/dental-van-offers-seniors-free-care\/","title":{"rendered":"Dental van offers seniors free care"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Wicked Local Marlborough.com<\/strong><\/p>\n

By Catherine Buday<\/h4>\n

MARLBOROUGH<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem:<\/strong>
\nHealth experts say that seniors, squeezed by limited budgets and declining dental coverage, often neglect their teeth. \u201cWhat I\u2019ve been hearing is that people haven\u2019t been to the dentist in years, mainly because of the high cost of care,\u201d said Nancy Fernandez, a nurse for Marlborough\u2019s Council on Aging. \u201cMany do everything else for the rest of their bodies, but the teeth are the last thing.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Michael Henry of the Massachusetts Dental Society sees the same problem. \u201cMany say, \u2018why should I spend $5,000 to get dental work done when I might die tomorrow?,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThey would rather leave the money to their kids. They don\u2019t realize that it lowers their quality of life if they can\u2019t chew properly or if their mouth gets infected.\u201d<\/p>\n

One solution:<\/strong>
\nEarly this month, the Massachusetts Dental Society van brought free dental care to the Marlborough Senior Center. The van traditionally serves disadvantaged children and only recently expanded its services to seniors in Marlborough, Waltham and Natick. On March 6, 14 Marlborough seniors received free checkups and screenings for oral cancer and other problems from dentists John Giordano, of Worcester, and Linda Drennen, of Milford. A grant from the Marlborough-based office of Boston Scientific helped pay for the visit.
\n\u201cWe\u2019re seeing things like broken fillings or crowns that they\u2019ve had for a long time,\u201d said Dr. Giordano. \u201cSeniors need professional cleanings at least every six months, or there can be problems with gum bleeding and other issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

What\u2019s next:<\/strong>
\nThe dental van will return to Marlborough on April 10. Marlborough seniors can call Nancy Fernandez at 508-485-6492, Ext. 15 to sign up. \u201cIt\u2019s a great way for seniors with low income to get free cleanings, oral cancer screenings and a referral to local dentists for other issues,\u201d Fernandez said.
\n\u201cOur ultimate goal,\u201d said Henry, \u201cis to find them a dental \u2018home\u2019 within their community, either with a dentist who takes Mass Health (the state-run program for those who can\u2019t afford health insurance) or with a dentist who does pro-bono work for the community.\u201d According to Henry, the Dental Society has a network of dentists who will provide care for free for some patients who can\u2019t afford it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Source: Wicked Local Marlborough.com By Catherine Buday MARLBOROUGH The problem: Health experts say that seniors, squeezed by limited budgets and declining dental coverage, often neglect their teeth. \u201cWhat I\u2019ve been hearing is that people haven\u2019t been to the dentist in years, mainly because of the high cost of care,\u201d said Nancy Fernandez, a nurse for Marlborough\u2019s Council on Aging. \u201cMany do everything else for the rest of their bodies, but the teeth are the last thing.\u201d\u00a0 Michael Henry of the Massachusetts Dental Society sees the same problem. \u201cMany say, \u2018why should I spend $5,000 to get dental work done when I might die tomorrow?,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cThey would rather leave the money to their kids. They don\u2019t realize that it lowers their quality of life if they can\u2019t chew properly or if their mouth gets infected.\u201d One solution: Early this month, the Massachusetts Dental Society van brought free dental care to the Marlborough Senior Center. The van traditionally serves disadvantaged children and only recently expanded its services to seniors in Marlborough, Waltham and Natick. On March 6, 14 Marlborough seniors received free checkups and screenings for oral cancer and other problems from dentists John Giordano, of Worcester, and Linda Drennen, of Milford. A grant from the Marlborough-based office of Boston Scientific helped pay for the visit. \u201cWe\u2019re seeing things like broken fillings or crowns that they\u2019ve had for a long time,\u201d said Dr. Giordano. \u201cSeniors need professional cleanings at least every six months, or there can be problems with gum […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[783,782,49,781],"class_list":["post-1252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-oral_cancer_news","tag-free-screenings","tag-massachusetts-dental-society","tag-oral-cancer-screenings","tag-senior-care"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1252"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1263,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1252\/revisions\/1263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/oralcancernews.org\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}