Interfaith Dental Clinic

By contributing to United Way, your contribution can help to restore, protect, and improve the oral health of uninsured, low-income, working people, their children and the elderly in the greater Nashville area through access to affordable quality dental care, oral disease prevention services, and oral health education. Did you know that if a pregant women has an oral disease that she will pass this on to her newborn which means the child will end up with bad teeth.

http://www.interfaithdentalclinic.com/

Interfaith Dental Clinic

The information Dr. Switzer provided was very interesting! I really wasn't aware that the bacteria in your mouth could be associated with heart disease and diabetes. Your smile says alot about you!

Interfaith Dental

My first visit with Interfaith Dental moved me. It showed that there is hope for those who work yet have no insurance and are poor. Interfaith works with the working poor to provide comprehensive dental care.

They shared the story of a woman who spent years hiding her teeth because of poor dental health. She didn't smile for family pictures. She covered her mouth when she laughed. Her story inspired me. The song,“I Love To See You Smile” was written after seeing the video they played during the United Way visit a few years ago. Her husband commented that he “forgot that she had dimples” after years of not seeing her smile. Thus, the opening line to the song. (complete lyrics below)

One day, a couple years after our agency visit, my sister-in-law, a single mother of two boys, was complaining of a toothache during a family dinner. She said she didn't have dental insurance as she was in school at the time studying for her RN while working part-time at a doctors office. I told her about Interfaith Dental and she went down there and applied. They accepted her as a patient and she got all of the work she needed done and got set up on a payment plan. She eventually graduated with her RN and is now a pediatric hospice nurse. She didn't need a handout, she needed a reasonable solution to a dental issue and Interfaith Dental was her answer.

Interfaith Dental gets about $135,000 per year from United Way, but just being a United Way Agency gives them credibility and keeps them focused on their mission of provided complete care for each patient. They measure their success not by the number of fillings they do or patients they see. They measure it by how many patients have completed their treatment.

I personally know one success story and am thankful to Journal Communications for allowing us to make agency visits. Without it, my sister-in-law may have never known about Interfaith Dental and have completed her RN.

I Love To See You Smile

By Gary Michael Smith © 2005

I forgot that you have dimples

I haven't seen you smile in years

I'm so glad to see you happy

I think that I might shed a tear

You are beautiful and lovely

Darlin' just the way you are

But I forgot that you have dimples

And when you smile you're a star

I love to see you smile

Your dimples drive me wild

Please don't hide

Your pearly whites

I love to see you smile

I don't think you know the power

That a smile like yours possesses

You could put the world in order

You could turn no's into yeses

You may think I'm being simple

For going on and on this way

But I forgot that you have dimples

And your smile makes my day

I love to see you smile

Your dimples drive me wild

Please don't hide

Your pearly whites

I love to see you smile

Interfaith Dental Clinic

Our group took a tour of the Interfaith Dental Clinic on Patterson Street in Nashville and talked with Dr. Rhonda Switzer.
This 76,000-square-foot facility serves the working poor. A team of 300 health-care providers offer care for people who need all types of dental work.
The clinic is the only faith-based, private comprehensive clinic in Middle Tennessee.
United Way funds about $135,000 of a $1 million budget, but Switzer says the connection with UW goes deeper than just funding. Not only is being a part of UW a seal of approval, but it helps them track their success.
Patients can pay on a sliding scale, which is based on the number of people in their family and their poverty level. There is currently a eight-month waiting list for appointments, unless a patient is in pain. The clinic works in three to four people every day if they are suffering.
Switzer feels that dentistry is the biggest unfilled heath need in this country, and she is certainly doing her part to provide care for those who need it.

Interfaith Dental Visit

Imagine being a single mother of two, working 30 hours per week and all of a sudden you have severe tooth pain and no dental insurance. So that probably translates into not being able to afford paying the entire cost of what needs to be done for the pain by a dentist.
Well that is just one example of where Interfaith Dental can help.
Since 1994, from the dream of some dentists to help the "working poor" maintain proper dental care, many people have a way to help their oral health in times of need.
Interfaith Dental is not a place just to get a tooth pulled and be on your merry way. This facility has a group of very talented and specialized dentists and hygenists who volunteer their time to help some of the most extreme cases of dental problems that most dental offices never see. It is a program to educate and instill a complete oral care program for the patient. Most patients are in the program at Interfaith Dental from 12 - 18 months in order to receive all the care needed and to make sure they continue proper oral care for themselves and their families for the rest of their life.
Dr. Rhonda Switzer has been with Interfaith Dental since 1995 and has a group of over 300 volunteers for this program. Dr. Switzer is very dedicated in trying to educate those in the health field and the community of the direct correlation between good oral health and good overall health. Dr. Switzer says their program is very sensitive to not only the need of the patient for their oral care, but how this will help the individual become more confident, more employable, feel better, etc.