HOULTON, Maine — More than 50 children received free dental care at the Rollerama in Houlton June 16 and 17, 2016.
At the request of Dannette Ellis, director of the “Other Maine” Program of Aid for Kids, Dr. Timothy Oh, DMD brought six dental students from the University of Connecticut School of Dental Medicine with their supervisor,Dr. Kevin Noridge, DMD. The third-year dental students were: Alexa Brancato, Victor Wang, Alex Gale, Michelle Wesley, Kaitlyn Neglerio and Anh Tran.
In addition to cleaning, filling and caring in other ways for the children’s teeth, an added bonus was taking the unique impression of each child’s teeth for identification purposes. These impressions, which hopefully will never be needed, were given to their parents.
Dr. Oh founded “Caring Hands of Maine,” a charitable organization based in Ellsworth that provides accessible, high quality health care to rural communities in Maine. Also on site in Houlton were Dr. Eric Johnson, DMD, a pediatric dentist from St. Apollonia Kids Clinic in Presque Isle and Dr. Bettina Laidley, DMD who is Director of Region I of the Academy of General Dentistry. Region I includes Maine, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
Many thanks were given to the dental staff for the free care provided for the children by parents, children and Aid for Kids volunteer participants including Desire Ellis and Phoebe Laidley. Thanks also were expressed to the Houlton Band of Maliseets for providing the Rollerama building free of charge. Next year look for a free dental care clinic for both children and adults.
