1. Seventh District Dentists and
Dental Hygienists lack of
Volunteerism in Dental Public
Health Clinics
BY:
JONI

2. St Joseph’s Neighborhood Center
 The St Joseph’s Neighborhood center is a health
clinic in Rochester, NY that provides many health
and dental services for those individuals who do not
have health or dental insurance or Medicaid. It is a
service to help the underserved population who “fall
through the cracks” and just cannot afford health or
dental services.

3. Many volunteers, but where are all the Dentists
and Dental Hygienists?
 The clinic has an abundance of volunteers including Dermatologists,
Physicians, Physicians’ Assistants, Nurse Practitioners,
Gynecologists, Pediatricians, Chiropractors, etc.
 As of today there are over 800 dentists and Dental Hygienists who
are members of the Seventh District Dental Society and the Seventh
District Dental Hygiene Association.
 Also, many dentists and dental hygienists in our community chose
not to be members of the two societies mentioned on previous slide.
 The problem is very few dentists and dental hygienists from the
Seventh District Dental Society and Dental Hygienists Society
volunteer at any outreach public health clinics and those who do are
usually retired dentist or dental hygienists looking to give back to
the community.
 As a result many patients are turned away due to the lack of dentists
and dental hygienists to treat them.

4. Solution!!!!!
 My thoughts were if I could appeal to the Dentists
and Dental Hygienists in the Seventh District to
volunteer their time and see one patient a year at no
charge to the patient either in their private office or
in the clinic, this would help these patients get the
dental care they so deserve.

5. How to get these Dentists and Dental
Hygienists to say YES?
 The clinic director of the St. Joseph’s Neighborhood
Center has told me that if I could execute this plan
successfully this would be a miracle.
 She has appealed to the Seventh District Dental
Society herself in person and has received practically
no support from our local dentists.

6. How to get these Dentists and Dental Hygienists
to say YES?
 My idea was to attend a Seventh District Dental meeting and
plead my case.
 One advantage I have over the present dental director of the
clinic is that I work for one of the Board Members of the
Seventh District who also holds a position as a member and
delegate for the American Dental Association which holds a
lot of depth and weight in our community.
 He is very well liked and respected in my community and if he
introduces me, all eyes and hopefully ears will be on me.
 I would also like to attend the next Board Meeting that the
Seventh district Dental Hygiene Association holds in
September and plead my case asking for more dental
hygienists to volunteer at the clinic.

7. Persuasion
 My thoughts were to appeal to the human aspect of
these dentists and dental hygienists explaining to
them that I am sure they know family members or
close friends who have lost their jobs or dental
insurance especially as of late due to the recession.
 I will try to appeal to the fact that we all have been
hit by the recession in our community so we know
first hand what it feels like when patients cancel
appointments due to lack of funds or dental
insurance, leaving the dentist with multiple openings
in his or her schedules.

8. Appeal to the Dentists and Dental Hygienists
 What would be so difficult to see only one pro-bono dental
case a year? That would treat at least 800 undeserved
patients a year. WOW!!
 The dentist could write it off as a tax reduction
 He or she would be a hero in that suffering patient’s eyes and I
could pretty much guess that when someday that patient does
get dental insurance or gets back on his or her feet, he or she
will visit that dentist again remembering how kind and
generous that dentist and the dental hygienist was.
 Also, I believe the patient will be so grateful that they will tell
many others who will perhaps seek this special dentist out.
 I have seen this process unfold personally, so I know it works.
Word of mouth is the best advertising around.

9. Incentives to get Volunteers
 If Continuing Education Credits were given to each
dentist and dental hygienist who volunteered he or
she would be able to meet some of the mandatory
credits needed each term to keep his or her license
active in the State of New York.
 Many Institutes offer free Continuing Credits as well
as NYS Dep’t of Education.
 There are many incentive Programs available to
create more volunteerism in NYS for dentists and
dental hygienists.

10. More Incentives
 The majority of the residents in Rochester NY receive a
Sunday paper.
 I believe the dentist or dental hygienist who performed the
free service to a member of our underserved population
should be named as well as the patient’s feedback.
 I believe people in the community will be drawn to a dentist
who really cares and wants to give back to the community.
 What a great way to have free publicity.
 I am also proposing free advertisement on the Seventh
District Dental Society website naming which dentist or
dentists of the month gave freely of their time to help the
underserved population.
 I was hoping this would create a sense of obligation with the
other dentists because they do not want to feel left out.

11. Funding
 To advertise on the Seventh District website is free as long
as you are a member, and one of my two employees would
take care of that aspect since they are both very active and
long term members. Of course it would be have to be voted
among the board members for permission but I am not
anticipating a problem.
 I am very much aware that this is a commitment for these
dentists and dental hygienists but I know the mark-up on
these crowns and bridges because I work side by side with
dental lab technicians. It is not going to break a dentist
financially if he provides one pro-bone case a year. With at
least 800 dentist in our community we actually can provide
services for more of our underserved population.
 It will be a “win “win for the dentists in the long run.

12. Funding
As far as the local newspaper, It would cost so much per line and I
would actually either fund this myself or use monies donated to the St.
Joseph’s Neighborhood Center to cover the costs. I am so passionate
about this that yes indeed I would fund the advertisements myself. It is
for a great cause.
I am aware that each dentist and dental hygienist is providing a service
for free and this will come out of his or her pocket. But again, they can
use their volunteerism as a tax write-off.

14. Website for St Joseph’s Neighborhood Center
http://www.sjncenter.org/

15. THE END