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July 22, 2005
Dental School gives care to migrant workers' children
I thought that light-hearted feel-good journalism might be a refreshing change from the doom and gloom of my usual picks. Here's the link: http://www.mndaily.com/articles/2005/07/20/64798.
Twelve volunteers from the University of Minnesota's dental school, including students and staff, will spend four days examining, drilling and filling the teeth of the children of Olivia's migrant workers. They brought with them an X-ray machine, a portable dental chair and a dental light. "It's basically a dental office that can be packed into a van." says one of the volunteer staff.
The program started nine years ago in 1996 with the organizational efforts of one of the school's dentql professors, Les Martens. He was concerned with the lack of dental care these workers and their families accessed, citing that up to twenty percent of the children that participated in past projects had at least one rotten tooth that had to be pulled. It's good to know that there are people who act for a cause instead of just saying "someone should."