Center for Excellence in Rural Health

Dental Clinic Services

The UK North Fork Valley Community Health Center added the UK Family Dental Clinic to its first-floor suite in the Center for Excellence in Rural Health Bailey-Stumbo Building in July 2004. The dental clinic, like the medical clinic, offers a sliding-fee scale for basic services to patients based on their income, so all patients are treated regardless of their ability to pay. The dental clinic offers a full range of services to patients of all ages, from infants to the elderly. These are listed below.

• Preventive -- Exams, X-rays, cleanings, fluoride treatments, sealants, patient education, and tobacco cessation counseling
• Periodontal -- Treatment for gum disease
• Restorative -- Fillings, crowns, and bridges
• Prosthodontic -- Dentures and partials
• Cosmetic -- Bleaching, bonding, and veneers
• Oral surgery -- Extractions
• Endodontics -- Root canals

The dental clinic also serves as the site for the East Kentucky Dental Residency Program. Dentists who have graduated from dental school and choose to further their education can apply to a residency program located at UK in Lexington. Then, during the course of their education, residents are assigned a five-week block of time spent at the Hazard site treating patients from Eastern Kentucky. Each school year, seven general practice residents rotate through the dental clinic.

The clinic has five treatment rooms, one of which is a future surgical suite where visiting specialists from the UK College of Dentistry can perform procedures requiring sedation, such as oral surgery and pediatric dentistry.

The children of Eastern Kentucky also benefit from a mobile dental unit donated by the Ronald McDonald House Charities. The mobile unit allows the clinic and residency program to bring dental services to school children in Perry and surrounding counties. Many Kentucky school children qualify for dental benefits under the Kentucky Children’s Health Insurance Program; however, many have not seen a dentist because their parents cannot provide transportation or may not be aware of the importance of semi-annual cleanings, sealants, and other preventive measures to help prevent tooth loss later in life.

The UK Family Dental Clinic and its mobile unit and residency program are the first regional dental program for the UK College of Dentistry. The idea for this pilot project came as a result of the increasing awareness that the dental health needs of rural Kentuckians are at a critical level. This and future regional dental program sites hope to engage not only in patient care but also in research projects to further understand the health issues facing Kentuckians.

There is also an increasing awareness of the systemic, or whole-body, effects of poor oral health, such as its contribution to diabetes, stroke, cardiovascular disease, pre-term and low-weight babies, and other afflictions. Therefore, UK’s College of Dentistry and College of Medicine are undertaking several joint projects, including this one, to help integrate oral health care with comprehensive medical care. All physicians who choose a family practice residency at UK are now being trained by UK dentists under a new program called Physicians Oral Health Education in Kentucky. This will help increase their knowledge of oral health and increase their confidence to do oral examinations, as well as perform some dental procedures, such as the application of fluoride varnish to infants and small children who present with severe dental decay.

The dental program is proud to be providing clinical care, education, and multi- disciplinary treatment for the people of Eastern Kentucky.

For more information, contact:

Nikki Stone, D.M.D.
Dental Program Director
750 Morton Boulevard
Hazard, KY 41701-9500
(606) 439-3557 or 800-851-7512, Ext. 83541
Fax: (606) 436-6988
E-mail: nston2@email.uky.edu