| Interfaith clinic provides dental care to working
poor
Feb. 8, 2006
By Lilla Marigza*
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — Your smile is often the first thing people notice
about you. A ministry started by a local United Methodist church is giving
uninsured Tennesseans something to smile about.
Carol Azamtarrahian works 40 hours a week as a preschool teacher. Her
employer provides dental insurance, but she can’t afford the premiums. Until
recently, she qualified for state-sponsored dental care, but budget cuts
eliminated the program.
“I used to be on TennCare, but they cut our services, so that’s why I came
here,” she says.
Nashville’s Interfaith Dental Clinic serves people like Carol and her family.
Its mission is to help the city’s working poor — people who work full time but
have trouble making ends meet.
“This clinic hits people who fall between the cracks,” says Dr. Tom
Underwood, a dentist who helped found the clinic. “In other words, if they have
no income, if they don’t work, the families can have indigent care. If a family
actually works and doesn’t have insurance, they don’t have enough to take care
of their family needs and their dentistry at the same time because dentistry is
very expensive.”
Payment for services is on a sliding scale based on income, and all patients
must show proof of full-time employment. The clinic hours are designed to
accommodate the special needs of clients. The clinic serves 1,200 people a year.
“I was able to come here because they are open at night and it’s easier for
me to come after hours from working and pick up my children from school,”
Azamtarrahian says. She and her husband have five children, two of whom qualify
for the clinic; the others are over 18.
The interfaith clinic began in 1993 in a broom closet in the basement of West
End United Methodist Church. Underwood, a church member, posed the idea after
several mission trips to provide dental care in Third World countries.
“I worked in several foreign countries, and when we got back to Nashville, we
realized the people here were in worse shape than most all of the other
countries,” Underwood says.
Underwood gives much of the credit for the success of the ministry to the
clinic’s executive director, Dr. Rhonda Switzer, a dentist and member of West
End United Methodist. Switzer supervised the program as it outgrew the church
basement. Today, the interfaith clinic has a state-of-the-art facility, a
full-time staff and 200 volunteer doctors.
Switzer is one of the clinic’s two full-time dentists. “I am very proud of
the Methodist Church for starting this,” she says. “It is, I think, pretty novel
and they should be proud it started here, and it’s a model for other churches to
follow.”
Switzer’s job is part medicine and part public relations, and she works far
beyond the usual 9-to-5. It takes a lot of money and volunteers to keep the
program running.
“If we have the opportunity to tell our story? whether it’s to a Sunday
school class or from the pulpit or at a Wednesday supper ? I will be there,” she
says.
She credits her faith with helping her handle the demands of the work, and
her church with developing her leadership skills. Years of Sunday school and
singing in the choir have nurtured her for a life of public speaking, she says.
“Those are skills I learned at church and not necessarily at school. I think
that’s pretty cool.”
The clinic relies solely on donations to raise its million-dollar annual
operating budget.
Board members say with private health care costs skyrocketing, public need is
growing. They hope more churches will recognize the need for dental ministry not
just in developing countries but in the communities they serve.
“You know there are so many people out there that you can change their lives
if they could just afford to have the dental care,” Underwood says.
Carol Azamtarrahian is grateful for the help she has received. She came to
the clinic in pain and missing teeth. She now has a new smile, including
extensive bridgework and crowns. Her children are also getting regular checkups
and cleanings. She hopes the good oral hygiene habits learned here will stay
with them for life.
“I just know preventive care is the most important,” she says, “and if they
keep up with it ? they won’t be in the situation I got into.”
*Marigza is a freelance producer in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Jan Snider or Fran Coode Walsh, Nashville, Tenn., (615)
742-5474 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.
Video Story
Brushing Away Dental Bills: Clinic saves smiles
Related Articles
Soaring health costs turn churches into primary care providers
Physicians find fulfillment in ministry, not money
Church grapples with U.S. health care crisis
Resources
Interfaith Dental Clinic
Theme Page: Health Care
Cover the Uninsured Week
Board of Church and Society
United Methodist Association
| 
