San Antonio Christian Dental Clinic
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Mission Statement
San Antonio Christian Dental Clinic extends healing of both body and spirit by providing free basic dental care for low-income and homeless Bexar County adults. Our model is unique in that we are 100% privately funded, and all professional dental care is delivered through a combination of community volunteers, referral partnerships with like-minded agencies, and training partnerships with UT Health Science Center Dental School and the U.S. Navy Medicine & Training Center. We also offer a Dental Assistant Training Program that augments our healing mission by providing disadvantaged young adults certification as registered dental assistants through both classroom and clinical training. The program is completely free to those who qualify. In exchange, participants are asked for 96 volunteer clinic hours in the year after program completion.
About This Cause
In March 1979, two dedicated members of First Presbyterian Church recognized the profound need for charitable care for low-income and homeless adults in San Antonio. Together they established our clinic, which is now located on the Haven for Hope campus. The clinic’s primary program is aimed at restoration of body and spirit through charitable dental care. We augment our healing ministry with a no-cost program preparing disadvantaged young adults for employment as Registered Dental Assistants. Our success is a largely unique model: Christ-centered dental care delivered by volunteers and supported uniquely by private funding. In 2009, the clinic moved into a state-of-the-art dental care facility on the Haven for Hope campus. From humble beginnings, the clinic has grown from a one-chair operation and our ability to improve the health and lives of the people we serve has grown along with us. Through the work of many kinds of volunteers: local dentists, dental assistants, dental hygienists, business and administrative volunteers, and a unique partnership with UT Health Science Center Dental School, our ministry has been serving the community we call home for 30 years. By providing free dental care to Bexar County's underserved adults, the clinic plays a vital role in facing a critical shortage of area dental services. Tooth decay is one of the country's most chronic health challenges even though dental disease is easily treated through access to ordinary, routine care. Research shows that gum disease increases a person's risk of numerous general health issues including heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. The clinic's location on the Haven for Hope campus is in the center of an area marked by a shortage of dental professionals. People who live in such areas are more likely than others to suffer from dental disease and health problems, spending more money on care and more time seeking health assistance in emergency situations. These barriers affect low-income families and Hispanics disproportionately. Once qualified, patients receive a wide range of dental services for at least 12 months. Services range from preventive to restorative and include specialties of periodontics, endodontics, oral surgery, fixed and removable prosthetics. A complete treatment plan is designed for each patient with the goal of keeping health teeth in place, but providing restorative care when necessary with the objective of restoring patients to a dental condition that they can maintain with minimal professional intervention over time. A six-month dental hygiene recall program ensures preventive care and education for qualified patients. As an ancillary program, the clinic offers a Registered Dental Assistant training program which provides disadvantaged young adults to move from below-subsistence to self-sufficiency while also providing an influx of new talent in a field with significant local and statewide workforce shortages. These skills allow for entry level positions in Allied Health and serve as a potential platform for higher education. The no-cost program teaches participants how to work in dental clinics through both classroom and clinical training held onsite. The program design anticipates potential barriers to success not only by offering free tuition, but also assuming costs of all barriers to education including uniforms and shoes, immunizations and bus passes, books and supplies, and certification testing and CPR training fees, In exchange, participants are asked for 96 volunteer clinic hours in the year after program completion. As far as we know, the program is completely unique in the country and offers an innovative approach to mitigating the threat of poverty for participants while providing SACDC with budget relief in the form of no-cost chairside assisting, thus expanding the free dental care we provide. Given our position and focus, the RDA training program is seen as an innovative way to expand the clinic’s services without falling victim to mission creep. Other RDA training programs do exist in San Antonio yet these programs have an average annual cost close to $16,580 and do not encompass costs of certification, books, or other potential barriers. Our program, on the other hand, eliminates all barriers to success by underwriting 100% of all costs while enabling students to train with staff of the UT Health Science Center San Antonio on some of the most extreme cases in the city. Additionally, in an attempt to help transition homeless individuals to self-sufficiency, SACDC works as one of 80 partnering agencies on the Haven for Hope homeless shelter campus in downtown San Antonio. This one-of-kind partnership of local agencies seeks to efficiently combine resources to help eliminate every barrier that might hinder an individual looking to get back on their feet. In conjunction with this effort, over the last two years, 20% of our RDA graduates have been Haven for Hope residents who have utilized their RDA training and certification to acquire a great entry level position in a field with high job demand.