PROVIDENCE – Everybody needs a place to call home, where safety and security meet and familiarity reigns.
Many people, now, are realizing the need for what’s called a “medical home” as well: A doctor or entire practice where a patient is known and feels comfortable, a place where their medical history is not a mystery and their care has some uniformity.
Dr. Daniel Kane would like more people to realize that, in addition to these first two kinds of homes, a “dental home” is also necessary to good health.
The St. Joseph pediatric dental clinic has been treating the neediest children across Rhode Island since its inception in 1995. The clinic is the only one of its kind in the state. It both trains pediatric dentists and accepts patients who use Medicare.
Kane became the director of the clinic in 2000, when it had only three chairs. Since then, he has increased its size to 11 chairs, most recently adding two new operatories where a kitchen and staff lounge had been.
The upgrade allows the clinic to accommodate more patients as the need for affordable pediatric care continues to grow. “Demand for our services has grown so much that we’re really just responding to the need,” Kane said.
Not only does the clinic readily accept low-income patients, they are also well-equipped to handle patients who come in with special needs. This includes developmental disabilities, behavioral issues and medical issues ranging from diabetes to blood disorders. In extreme cases the dentists are able to completely anesthetize children before procedures.
Kane and his staff work to meet the other needs of their pint-sized patients, too. He estimates that has staff, among them, speaks nine or ten languages, which helps the multicultural patients and their parents feel comfortable.
In order to make the experience of visiting the dentist a good one for all the children, Kane and his staff do much more than hand out colored toothbrushes and stickers. They are careful to speak directly to their patients, explaining each step of the process and each piece of equipment in detail to ease nerves. They hope to guide their patients toward “a lifetime of good habits,” he said – good habits that begin with regular dental checkups and dental hygiene. “We can prevent a lot of the problems before it’s too late,” he said.
The biggest problem he sees is dental caries, or tooth decay leading to widespread cavities, which he says is really an infectious disease that should be taken seriously. Many of these are caused by children who are dependent on bottles for too long or who eat too many sweets.
Pediatric dental health has been helped, he said, because “pediatricians are realizing that they need to get the children in sooner.” Pediatric dentistry is more than just a matter of teeth and gums. “You want to look at the whole child,” Kane said. “You do play a role in their life; you see them grow up.”
The clinic treats between 6,000 and 7,000 patients currently, which turns into about 14,000 visits each year. Patients are ideally treated from their first tooth or first birthday until adolescence.
Although the clinic’s services are geared toward meeting the needs of low-income patients, Kane is quick to point out that the care of his patients does not suffer in any way. “We treat this like a private practice,” he said. “Everyone who comes in here is our patient.”
Kane hopes to build a lasting relationship with every patient he sees so that in the case of a dental trauma or emergency, “they have a dentist who knows them and it’s not necessarily their first experience.” He also hopes that the children he sees will continue to care about their dental health into adulthood and will have no fear of going to the dentist.
The clinic is also a training program for dental school graduates who wish to specialize in pediatric dentistry. Each year Kane takes on four new student dentists for the two-year program. Because there is not dental school in Rhode Island, the dentists he teaches come from across the country.
The program grew out of a recommendation from a pediatric dentistry commission that concluded, “Because Rhode Island is so underserved,” a training program would help to meet the needs of children across the state. “Hopefully some of those we train will stay in Rhode Island,” Kane said.
The clinic in Providence has a sister clinic in Pawtucket at the Fatima Health Center with three chairs. They are also responsible for the Providence Smiles Program, which sends dentists to elementary schools to provide free teeth cleaning. They visit ten schools in Providence, and one Head Start program as well as six schools in Pawtucket.
Although the clinic keeps growing, thanks in large part to generous corporate donations, the need seems to outpace its growth. “I could use another ten chairs,” Kane said. He recently hired another full time dentist and in the beginning of July got his newest crop of student dentists.
Although the pay for dentists at the clinic pales in comparison to that of private practice dentists in affluent communities, Kane says that the rewards he receives from his practice are more important than a large paycheck.
“Knowing that you’re giving good care and actually getting to use the skills you went to school for,” he said, are the rewards.
