BAKER — Nathan Merritt saw the dentist Tuesday morning. Several years after he lost a front tooth in an accident, the opportunity to fix the damage at last came up.
The Florida Baptist Convention’s mobile dental care unit spent the week in Baker, where more than 100 residents, most without dental insurance and unable to afford dental care, were treated by rotating teams of area dentists. The Baker Lions Club and Baker Area Ministerial Association churches collaborated to bring the clinic to town, Lions chairwoman Mary Ann Henley said.
Nine rotating volunteer registered nurses from Emerald Coast Hospice provided free health screenings for patients as they waited to be seen by the dentists. Even before the first two dentists reported aboard the clinic at 8 a.m. Monday, volunteers at the Baker community center had pre-screened 82 patients for appointments.
For Merritt, the chance to sit in Dr. Erik Meyers’ chair and have his dental needs assessed was a blessing. “I have no health insurance or dental,” Merritt said, adding his disabled mother has been scrimping and saving to help buy him an upper plate. “She said I don’t smile anymore, but who would with this big hole in his mouth?” Merritt said. “She’s been hounding me to get it fixed.”
Meyers, who practices at Eglin Air Force Base, had good news for the 38-year-old Merritt. Most of his teeth were “in good shape” and he wouldn’t need the full upper plate he expected. A partial plate could repair the gap in his smile, Meyers said.
Mobile Dental Unit coordinator Crystal Andrews, who drives the bus and performs technical duties such as sterilizing equipment, Florida, said the clinic spends about a week in each location. “The bus is busy all year,” she said.
As Meyers treated Merritt, Dr. Susan Welch performed an extraction involving hooked tooth roots on resident Michael Benevidos at the opposite end of the bus. A patient in Benevido’s situation typically would be sent to an oral surgeon, but Welch’s former military experience with sometimes limited resources triumphed. “From my Air Force training I knew what I was up against,” Welch said. “That’s the neat part of dentistry: There’s more than one way of doing things. They don’t teach you that in dental school.”
For patients like Merritt and Benevidos, the mobile clinic provided needed medical care they otherwise couldn’t afford. Benevidos’ tooth extraction would’ve cost $415.
“Merry Christmas!” Welch said as she released him from her care. “Or happy birthday, whichever you’d like it to be.”
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Baker mobile dental clinic treats 100+ residents