NORRISTOWN >> More than 100 community members received free dental screenings at Laborers’ Local 135 on Sandy Street Saturday through a partnership between the Greater Norristown NAACP and Dr. Nin Savani of Signature Smiles in Fort Washington.
The event offered dental check-ups, cleanings, fluoride treatments and sealants for those without insurance.
The pop-up clinic is the brainchild of NAACP member Renee Golden, who contacted Dr. Savani and his team along with several community organizations including ACLAMO, the American Cancer Society, Allied Orthodontics and Lansdale Rx Pharmacy to provide free services, such as blood pressure and blood sugar screenings, and disseminate public health information.
In addition, participants were treated to food, refreshments and children’s activities including pony rides, a bounce house and TNT water ice.
Golden, who has extensive experience working in the dental industry, said she reached out to Savani because of his commitment to making a difference in the community.
“We started off thinking we’d get maybe 50 or 60 people to come out and get dental services done,” she said. “But because of his (Dr. Savani’s) reputation and because of our outreach to so many community organizations like ACLAMO and all the churches in Norristown, we wound up signing up about 150 people. It’s been a wonderful experience.”
“Dentistry is not number one on anyone’s list,” said Dr. Savani. “We are always last. If you have a toothache, then you can’t sleep, then you try to find us.
“We want to prevent that delay by identifying the disease and figuring out what individual patients require.”
For some, especially older patients, preexisting conditions such as diabetes, high blood pressure or prior surgeries present challenges to maintaining sufficient oral care at home, Savani explained.
“Whether it’s limited resources, lack of insurance or just getting from point A to point B, it has become a very big issue in the community, so we thought, ‘Let’s put this together.’”
With the help of local organizations and the NAACP, Savani said he and his team of nearly a dozen dentists, assistants, hygienists and dental students — some of whom were studying abroad from India — were able to provide needed services, and most importantly, educate people about the importance of dental healthcare.
“A lot of people are somewhat reserved,” he said. “They don’t want to go to a doctor or a dentist because they think they’re probably going to find out something they don’t want to hear.”
Savani said outreach programs like the one held Saturday help to break down that barrier by presenting preventative care in a less stressful environment.
“You become friends with them (the patients),” he said. “You talk to them about how they’re doing and their families, and eventually they open up and say ‘I have a problem with this tooth or that tooth.’ I had a few patients like that today.”
Golden thanked Local 135 Business Manager Dan Woodall for his “tremendous support” in volunteering the hall for the event, and union members for helping to set up the facilities.
Her ultimate goal is to expand the outreach effort to a much larger swath of the community through grants and other sources of private and public funding.
“It’s not a one-shot deal,” Golden said, relating the story of an elderly woman with no insurance who is undergoing chemotherapy and showed up at the clinic with extensive periodontal disease.
“If this is not fixed, then this could possibly lead to more problems in her body, so next week I’m going to be on the phone with aging and adult services and regional health trying to get the resources she needs to get that work done. That’s the kind of support we want to provide.”
“I hope we do these things more often,” added Savani.
“My plan is to maybe do them twice a year, one in the spring, one in the fall — identifying people that really need dental treatment and bringing that treatment to the lowest cost so that we can support them and bring them to the office if we can’t do the treatment here.
“We want to become part of the community. And that’s what we’re doing here today.”
