A dentist's office can be a scary place, and this one had 100 dental chairs.
"Can you lie back for us?" Hans Gray asked Bella Fuentes, a 4-year-old with a worried look on her face.
"She's a little nervous right now, but she was excited to come," said her mom, Kristina Fuentes.
Close to 90 children, almost all of them uninsured, had come to the Give Kids a Smile event Saturday at the Creighton University School of Dentistry.
Creighton's dental school has offered the event for 12 years now. It includes balloon-making clowns, coloring tables and a free dental checkup.
"Mommy's right here," third-year dental student Himali Patel told Bella.
Bella's mother waved.
Bella wore a red bow in her black hair and red protective glasses for her exam.
Besides providing free dental care, Give Kids a Smile offers dental students some practice and conveys the importance of community service.
Similar events occurred recently in Lincoln, where University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Dentistry representatives examined the teeth of 134 children, and in Council Bluffs, where dentists treated 108 children.
At Creighton, about 100 people volunteered to conduct dental exams, work as Spanish-language interpreters and entertain children beforehand. The volunteers included Creighton dental students, Iowa Western Community College dental hygiene students, and faculty members from Creighton and Iowa Western.
Bella eventually relaxed enough to allow Patel and Gray, also a third-year dental student, to look inside her mouth.
"Pretty teeth," Patel told Bella.
Earlier at the clinic, James Nowden, 4, had undergone an exam and received tips on how to brush his teeth. Make circles like Cheerios as you brush, the dental students told James.
Scott Radniecki, a fourth-year dental student, gave James a gift bag. "You've got some Spongebob toothpaste in there," Radniecki told him.
"Yeah," James said.
James' sister, 2-year-old JaLynn, hadn't been examined, but she received a toothbrush, which she placed in her mouth as she and her brother left the clinic with their grandmother.
Back at Bella's station, the little round-faced girl reluctantly consented to a fluoride varnish treatment. Patel then instructed Bella's mom to make sure Bella brushed her back teeth, to gently pull Bella's lip down to get at the lower teeth and to help the girl with her flossing.
Gray gave Bella a blue toothbrush with Tigger the tiger on the stem. Patel thanked Bella for being a good patient. They shook hands, left-handed.
"I'll see you next year, OK?" Patel said.
"Yay," Bella's mother said. "No cavities, Bella. See what happens when you brush your teeth?"
Contact the writer:
402-444-1123, rick.ruggles@owh.com
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