Opening of the McGill annual summer dental clinic: July 2 to August 8, 1997
The Faculty of Dentistry at McGill University is pleased to announce that its annual Summer Dental Clinic for the Handicapped and Adolescent will take place this year from July 2 to August 8, 1997.
"Each year, this free clinic treats approximately 1,000 patients in the main dental clinic of the Montreal General Hospital. The primary goal of the clinic is to reach out to the medically compromised, and the physically and mentally challenged members of our population, and to provide them with outstanding dental care," says Dr Howard S. Katz, Director of the McGill University/Montreal General Hospital Summer Dental Clinic for the Handicapped and Adolescent. The operators are incoming senior students of the McGill Faculty of Dentistry who work under the very careful eye of the Facultys clinical instructors. Emphasis is placed on prevention, which includes basic procedures as cleaning, scaling, examination, radiographs, fluoride treatment, bacteria analysis, diet analysis, pit and fissure sealants, oral hygiene instruction, and so on. Subsequent to this, the pressing dental needs of the patients are addressed. These include fillings, extractions, emergency care, and others. "For many of our patients," Dr Katz points out, "their annual trip to the summer clinic is their only contact with dentistry, and were it not for this free clinic, funded by the Quebec Department of Health and Social Services, these people would remain largely untreated. This year, the McGill operators will also be going out into the community to teach basic oral hygiene techniques by visiting appropriate institutions."
Over the years, the Summer Dental Clinic contact with the community has been largely through the institutions that deal with people plagued with these handicaps. However, of the several hundred agencies the Clinic dealt with, many have changed their addresses over the years, and it is very difficult, indeed often impossible, to reestablish contact with them. This leads to many needy patients not being contacted and thus not being provided with the basic care they deserve. "With this in mind," says Dr Katz, "would the media please provide us with the assistance of free publicity in order to reach out to these institutions and invite them to contact us for full information regarding our free clinic. Once they reach us, we will be in a position to provide their members and their clientele with all the information necessary." Directors of institutions, organizations, specialty summer camps, schools, clubs etc. dealing with the medically, physically or mentally compromised patient are invited to call the McGill University - Montreal General Hospital Summer Dental Clinic for the handicapped at:
932-1832 Monday to Wednesday, 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
398-7203 Ext. 7226 Thursday and Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.
