FOR THE PEOPLE
In Tough Times, Dental Students
Get Plenty of Chances to Serve
Most people drive themselves into denial to avoid visiting a dentist, but Jan Mock, recently retired
from the Guilford County school system,
drives 54. 7 miles from his Randleman
home to Chapel Hill just to see one.
Mock’s not there for a simple cleaning; he
needs several teeth extracted and a plate
put in. He still calls the visits “a pleasure.”
“I’m donating my body to science,” he
says, cracking jokes from an examination
chair at the UNC School of Dentistry
clinic while fourth-year student Savannah
Gelesko ’06 treats him.
Mock is among tens of thousands of
North Carolinians who visit the UNC
School of Dentistry’s clinic every year,
spurred on by pain, lured in by the promise
of dental services at less than half the going
rate. And even while the school is taking
on these patients at reduced cost, it is sending its students and faculty around the
world to work for free: to Mexico, Malawi,
Moldova and Honduras, to Cherokee
Indian reservations and prison clinics and
rural parts of North Carolina, to any place
where there are people who
can’t afford to pay for the dental
care they need. In return for
their work at home and abroad,
the dental students get hands-on training and, many times, an
eye-opening experience.
“They go out to these clinic sites and a
light bulb comes on,” says Dr. Rick Mum-
ford ’ 92 (MPH), a clinical associate profes-
sor and director of the Dentistry in Service
to Communities Program. “They see what
it’s like. It’s a real growth moment for them
where everything turns on, and they get
really excited about returning to school
and finishing up.”
Count Patrick Galloway ’03 among that
number. The third-year dentistry student
spent part of last summer in Mexico with a
group of 10 UNC students, first observing
dentistry at hospitals in the capital, then
working for two weeks in an orphanage,
helping a local dentist meet the needs of
more than 400 children. Galloway says the
spirit of the children made the trip “really
uplifting.”
Back in the U.S., Galloway is one of
dozens of UNC students who volunteer
with N.C. Missions of Mercy, a nonprofit
started by 1981 School of Dentistry alum-
nus Dr. Steven Slott ’ 75 to provide free
dental services to those who can’t afford
them. Organized and staffed by volunteers,
Missions of Mercy trucks in dental sup-
plies, equipment and chairs and sets up for
one- or two-day stands across the state.
“Everywhere we go, we see people in
need,” Slott said. “Patients start lining up at
midnight, and we start up at 6 a.m. When
we get there, they are lined up around the
block.”
The dental school students are just as
eager to take part. Galloway helped coordi-
nate the student volunteers for the October
Missions of Mercy clinic in Dare County;
the volunteer list he posted on campus was
full in 30 minutes. “Some people were cry-
ing at the end, because they had been in
pain and the pain was gone,” Galloway said,
‘Everywhere we go, we see people in need. Patients start lining up at midnight,
and we start up at 6 a.m. When we get there, they are lined up around the block.’
Dr. Steven Slott ’ 75
describing the Kill Devil Hills clinic.
“There are really no words to describe the
experience.”
But dental students don’t need to leave
Chapel Hill to see this level of need. The
64-chair clinic in Tarrson Hall, which is
managed and run by students under faculty
supervision, handles about 80,000 patient
visits a year, and there is a lengthy waiting
list. “We’ve always had more people trying
to get into the system than we can accom-
modate,” said Dr. Douglas Solow, associate
dean of clinical services, adding that the
down economy has sparked a 30 percent
increase in people seeking care at the clinic.
The patients commit to sit for three-
hour visits, but in return they get quality
care at bargain prices. Gerald Boyle of
Cary has been visiting the clinic since
2004, having lower and then upper den-
tures put in. “The way they treat patients is
extraordinary,” Boyle says. “The commute
is the worst part.”
And Jan Mock, who has dental insur-
ance, says he can get a lot more work done
at the clinic before he reaches his $1,000
annual benefits limit. “The $1,000 goes far-
ther here,” he said.
