Middlesex Community College Dental Clinic Serves the Community

They are students, Uber drivers, retired librarians, construction workers, professors and immigrants who do not speak English. Some have had life-long dental care, others have never visited a dentist due to lack of insurance or opportunity.

They all are welcomed and served by Middlesex Community College’s Dental Clinic on the school’s Lowell campus. The clinic offers training hours for dental hygiene students and a wide range of low-cost comprehensive dental hygiene services to the public, including for those who could not otherwise afford those services.

Kristen Flebotte graduated from the Dental Hygiene program in May 2019. She admitted that at first, she was nervous to work on real patients.

“My number one priority from the first day was to make sure my patients were comfortable and knew what I was going to be doing and why. The mouth is a very private and sensitive area of the body. Lots of people are self-conscious about their mouths and are hesitant to be vulnerable in a clinic where they think they may be judged,” she said.

She learned how to ease patients’ fears by answering all of their questions.

“When you take a real interest in helping someone else, they can pick up on that,” Flebotte said. “There is a difference between really caring and just going through the motions and if you care about your patients, they open up to you and want your help and advice. I will always remember this one man from Cambodia who bowed to thank me at the end of the appointment. I remember feeling so happy that someone appreciated what I did for him that much.”

Working in the clinic opened Flebotte’s eyes to the massive gap between the oral health needs of the people in Massachusetts and quality, affordable care and the need to spread the word about the services available to the public at MCC.

Students often have to recruit patients for the clinic – a task Flebotte said was the most difficult thing about school for her. She managed to recruit 35 patients through people she knew, but got creative by posting on social media, Craigslist and handing out business cards she made.

“I paid some patients to help with transportation costs and lost income they would have been making if they weren’t sitting for me at the clinic,” she said. “I thought of this as an investment in my education as well as helping someone else out with their health.”

Patients at the MCC Dental Clinic can access services that reach far beyond just teeth cleaning, including everything from checking blood pressure, to providing head, neck and oral cancer screenings and nutritional counseling. Patients receive thorough dental cleanings, fluoride therapy, x-rays, sealants, cleaning of dentures or partials, custom fit athletic mouth guards and Arestin treatments to treat gum disease.

In the 2018-2019 academic year, 47 MCC dental students provided services to 636 patients, according to Karen Townsend, MCC Dental Hygiene Program Director.

“Receiving dental hygiene care in our clinic is unique due the educational nature of the program with appointments generally three to four hours long with multiple appointments often needed,” said Townsend, adding that the clinic also offers video interpreter services for patients that cannot, or are uncomfortable with, communicating in English. “In return for their time, patients receive the highest quality of assessment and care at a fraction of the cost they would pay in a private dental practice.”

When Jean Connor enrolled in the Dental Hygiene program at MCC in 1992, the dental clinic on the Bedford campus was outdated and space was tight.

In her second year, MCC’s dental clinic moved to the Lowell campus.

“The new clinic was state-of-the-art, it was really exciting,” she said, adding that being part of the first class to transition to the Lowell campus gave her a unique perspective and learning opportunity. It also provided students a wider diversity to the patient pool.

“In Bedford, our patients were mostly older white retired people, but Lowell has such great diversity we got to work on everybody,” said Connor, who worked as a dental assistant for 10 years before enrolling at MCC to become a hygienist. “Learning through direct care on human subjects makes dentistry really unique. You learn that every person is different and there are no perfect scenarios. You cannot always get what you expect and you learn to react to people and their needs.”

Connor said the education she received at MCC provided a variety of professional opportunities. For the past 25 years, she has worked full- or part-time as a dental hygienist, spent six years as a healthcare investigator for the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Dentistry, served as the President of the Dental Hygienists Association of America and now works part-time as a consultant for ACT fluoride rinse.

“I felt very confident in the field when I graduated from Middlesex,” she said. “The training gave me a solid base for what I needed to advance my career.”

In addition to caring for patients on campus, the service learning component of the curriculum brings students into the community, providing education, screening and dental hygiene services to populations in need at long-term nursing facilities, Tewksbury State Hospital, Lowell and Billerica public schools, Head Start, Middlesex House of Corrections and Boys and Girls Clubs.

In the fall of 2018, oral health education was provided to 564 second and fifth grade students of Lowell and Billerica public schools, Townsend said.

While the dental hygiene program – which accepts 24 students per year – is going strong, the 25-year-old clinic is in need of updating and renovations. The project, expected to be completed in August 2020, will include 24 new patient treatment rooms, new patient chairs in radiology and a new centralized sterilization center

This renovation includes a revised floor plan that will increase compliance with patient privacy laws (HIPAA) and increase accessibility. In addition, the dental assisting clinic will be renovated and outfitted with five new treatment areas.

“All new equipment will allow better ergonomics for our students as well as comfort and state-of-the-art treatment for our patients,” said Townsend.

MCC received a $499,254 Massachusetts Skills Capital Grant that will cover the cost for some of the renovation, but an additional fundraising campaign is required to raise the remainder of the project costs.

For more information about the MCC Dental Clinic, visit www.middlesex.mass.edu/DHClinic to make an appointment.

Discover your path at Middlesex Community College. As one of the largest, most comprehensive community colleges in Massachusetts, we educate, engage and empower a diverse community of learners. MCC offers more than 80 degree and certificate programs – plus hundreds of noncredit courses – on our campuses in Bedford and Lowell, and online. Middlesex Community College: Student success starts here!