More than 800 New Orleans residents received cleanings, restorative and specialty care, dentures, and x-rays during the ADA's Mission of Mercy (MOM) charity dental clinic, which was held during the group's annual meeting.
More than 1,100 dentists, dental team members, and others volunteered for the clinic, which was held in the warehouse where Mardi Gras parade floats are made every year, according to the ADA.
People began lining up outside Mardi Gras World at 5 p.m. Friday, November 2, and waited overnight to see a dentist. Meriam Wright, 56, first in line, has only a handful of top and bottom teeth left. Wright, who has diabetes, wanted to have a full set of teeth so she could eat better.
Another attendee, Charles Whitley, 53, works for a trade show company that handled the ADA meeting and had been complaining of a bad toothache for two months. A volunteer dentist extracted his tooth Saturday and took an impression of his mouth so that a retainer with a new tooth could be made overnight. Whitley, who has 10 children and no regular dentist or dental insurance, went to the clinic for a cleaning and his new tooth.
Walter Maggard, 58, hasn't had any teeth for 33 years. Both he and his wife, Kathryn, 58, are disabled, don't have a dentist, and can't afford one. He was at a meeting where Maria Burmaster, DDS, the New Orleans Dental Association's MOM chairwoman, spoke about the event. Later, Maggard asked Dr. Burmaster if the clinic provided dentures.
She invited him to her office where she took impressions and had dentures made to be ready for the event. At the clinic, Dr. Burmaster found that Ms. Maggard's lower dentures weren't fitting properly, so she was also seen by Dick Hettinger, DDS, chairman of the Iowa Dental Association's MOM program. The couple both left with a full set of teeth.
Nicole Tamara, 23, just started working but hasn't been with her new company long enough to get dental insurance. Tamara doesn't have a regular dentist and already spent $1,000 treatments last month but needed a filling. She arrived at the MOM event about 5:15 a.m. and spent more than six hours at the clinic.
