New dental clinic will soon give County children,
parents something to smile about
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — Aroostook County children who are without a dentist will soon be able to receive preventative, restorative and minor oral surgery services thanks to the St. Apollonia Dental Clinic.
Located at 122 Academy St. in Presque Isle, the non-profit organization is expected to see its first patients next month.
Staff photo/Scott Mitchell Johnson
THE ST. APOLLONIA DENTAL CLINIC, 
located at 122 Academy St. in Presque Isle, is expected to see its first patients next month. The clinic’s mission is to serve the dental needs of children (ages 0-20) who do not currently have a dentist. The 2,400 square foot facility was the former Higgins, Sims & Cenedella OBGYN office for many years. More than $100,000 in grants and community donations has been raised to date for the non-profit organization.
“The clinic was formed about a year ago,” said Dr. Norma Desjardins, DMD, executive director of the clinic. “Since then we’ve been working hard to generate some revenue so that we could renovate the clinic space, which is now ready for three operatories. Each operatory will consist of a dental chair, the delivery unit, cabinetry … anything that’s necessary to be able to perform dentistry, whether its hygiene services or services by the dentist.
“Through the generosity of the community and the Presque Isle Rotary Club — specifically Frank Bemis and Gina LeBlanc-Eggert who were the co-chairs of the special project — we’re having our first operatory delivered this Thursday, and we’re actually going to start doing some dentistry in March and will be able to start making appointments probably as soon as next week,” she said. “We’re on schedule, and I’m pretty excited.”
During last year’s Rotary Radio/TV Auction, the local club designated the dental clinic as its special project and set a fund-raising goal of $25,000.
“Through the generosity of the Aroostook County community about $38,000 was raised through the Rotary Auction,” said Desjardins. “In addition, we’ve received $50,000 from a private foundation which wishes to remain anonymous, a $10,000 grant from the Northeast Delta Dental Foundation, and a $5,000 grant from the Francis Hollis Brain Foundation. We have also received support from other local community service organizations and we appreciate their support. At the clinic we’re going to have a wall that will recognize the donors.”
Academy Dental and Dr. Don Cassidy have also contributed used dental equipment in an effort to help keep costs down.
The site of the St. Apollonia Dental Clinic, which is about 2,400 square feet, was the former Higgins, Sims & Cenedella OBGYN office for many years.
“We did a lot of work to get the space ready,” said Desjardins. “We tried to keep the floor plan simple so we didn’t have to tear down too many walls although we did take down one. We had to put all new flooring in the clinic area, repair and repaint the walls, place some carpeting in the reception area, and things like that. It’s looking great now.”
Desjardins will continue to see patients at Academy Dental, which she co-owns with Mark Melendez-Christensen, DMD.
“I’ll be mostly supervising the clinic, but there will be occasions when I’m there for children’s exams and helping with emergencies,” she said. “We do have a dentist — Keely O’Connell — who is coming from Creighton University in Omaha, Neb. to join us most likely in June.
“Depending on clientele and the number of patient appointments and calls that we get, we’re going to start out one day a week and then we’re going to grow to hopefully three or four days a week,” said Desjardins. “Hopefully by June we’re going to have a second chair depending on what kind of funding I can come up with. The projections are that if we’re operating three to four days a week, each chair would allow us to see 600 kids a year. With plans calling for three chairs, that would be 1,800 kids we’d see a year. ”
The clinic’s mission is to serve the dental needs of children (ages 0-20) who do not currently have a dentist.
“We want to see the most dentally underserved children and their siblings. We feel that if we can give those kids the head start as far as their dental health and give them those preventative services through their childhood and their teen years that they’ll definitely be more likely to keep their dentition for their lifetime,” said Desjardins. “The clinic is going to run similar to a dental office where we provide services and will bill for those services. It’s not a free clinic; however, we’ll have a sliding fee scale discount available. We accept MaineCare patients, as well as patients with private or no insurance.
“We have worked hard to keep operating costs down and we have been fortunate to have the generous support of local citizens as we continue our fund-raising efforts,” she said. “We strive to reach children whose families have only minimal resources.”
St. Apollonia is considered the patron saint of dental diseases and is often invoked by those with toothaches.
For more information on the clinic, call 554-5045 or e-mail stapolloniadentalclinic@gmail.com.
