WSU's dental hygiene clinic is one of the campus' "best-kept secrets."
In the past, most people looked forward to a trip to the dentist about as much as they looked forward to a root canal.
But over the course of the past two decades, that attitude has changed as the dental industry, like other health sectors, has begun to focus on a preventative approach to medicine.
Dental hygiene is a familiar area of health care that most people learn to take seriously from an early age. "Did you brush your teeth?" is a standard question heard by most children before bedtime, and an important question for parents and adults is whether their city or township's water is fluoridated.
Toothpaste is no longer just toothpaste. The dental aisle of any drugstore or supermarket is as varied as car options: tartar control, tartar control with baking soda, tartar control with baking soda and whitening agents, or tartar control with baking soda and whitening agents and fluoride. Of course, all that comes in regular flavor, mint or wintergreen!
Despite toothpaste options, fluoridation and other improvements in at-home dental-health measures, what can't be forgotten is the biannual visit to the dentist's office for cleaning and evaluation. The average person simply can't find cavities, tell when gingivitis has set into the gums or give their teeth that in-depth cleaning that is a vital complement to daily brushing and flossing. Luckily, Wichita State plays an important role in training professionals who can.
WSU's dental program has been part of the university for 25 years, and while the program has a stellar reputation, the fact that Wichita State has had an on-site dental clinic for 21 years is, in the words of program chair Denise Maseman, "one of the university's best-kept secrets."
The clinic, which seats 20 patients, is located on the second floor of Ahlberg Hall. While WSU students pay a slightly lower fee than nonstudents, the clinic is open to everyone. Dental hygiene students do the "leg work," yet there are dental hygiene faculty and supervising dentists in the clinic.
During the fall semesters, the clinic is open on Monday afternoons and all day Wednesdays. During spring semesters, it is open Monday afternoons and all day Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
Cleanings, X-rays, oral hygiene instruction, dental exams, fluoride treatments, polishing, oral cancer screenings, dietary evaluations and sealants are some of the many services available at the clinic. "Dental exams take a little longer here," Maseman cautions, explaining with a smile that this isn't because the students are slow or inexperienced, but because "they're learning, and they must be very thorough."
The dental hygiene program at Wichita State is an intensive three-year associates program, and has about 60 students per year enrolled. The program itself lasts two years, but students must be enrolled for a year of concentrated study before officially entering the program, in order to complete 23 prerequisites that include courses in chemistry, human anatomy, physiology, nutrition, psychology and microbiology.
While WSU's clinic caters to a variety of age groups and so offers a range of experience to program participants, students also work at a number of other local centers, including the Veterans Administration Hospital and the Wichita-Sedgwick County Public Health Department's Children's Clinic.
Once students have completed their studies and examinations, most of them move on to the most likely place: the dentist's office. As one might suspect, WSU-trained hygienists are most often certified to practice in Kansas or Oklahoma, although there are different opportunities available. One graduate, for instance, practices in Germany. Other graduates have branched into specialty practices, which include periodontics and orthodontics, or have chosen to go into research or detal hygiene education.
This spring, WSU's dental hygiene department has become a major player, along with the Cetner for Health & Wellness, in a program that is providing free sealants for 300 local children, the particular focus being children from Wichita's northeast community. This dental-health initiative is being funded by a grant from the United Methodist Health Ministries, which is based in Hutchinson, Kan.
Areneatha Martin '75/80, CEO for Wichita's Center for Health & Wellness, stresses that dental health is a key element in a person's overall health. "The center believes," she explains, "that health can't stand by itself. It's a part of everything we are, and so dental health is just as important a part of everything we do."
Generally speaking, the primary taget for adult dental hygiene is periodontal disease, while the primary concern for children and teenagers is the onset of cavities. molars are particularly susceptible to cavities, and that's precisely where sealants come into play. Why molars? And better yet, why sealants?
Molars are the teeth that sit behind the bicuspids. Their primary function is to grind food. When looking carefully at a molar, one sees that its surface consists of grooves. The grooves are the root cause of many a tear shed by an upset child. That's because a toothbrush can't catch everything, and if food is trapped within the grooves of a tooth for too long, tooth decay sets in. Eventually, a cavity forms.
Sealants may be the closest thing to a child's real-life knight in shining armor. In a wholly painless procedure, sealants perform precisely the job one might expect: they fill in the grooves, helping prevent food from being trapped. A preventative approach to oral hygiene, sealants often save a person much time, money and pain later in life.
Sealant treatments, however, aren't cheap, and some major medical plans don't cover the costs. The Health Ministries grant, which pays for the dental examinations, materials and bitewing X-rays, allows WSU's dental hygiene department, in partnership with the Center for Health & Wellness, to treat children who might not otherwise enjoy such dental-health services.
This just goes to show what can be achieved when WSU students, faculty and grads combine forces for a special purpose, one that is seen too rarely these days: giving back to the community.
And that's certainly something to smile about.
