More News

Not many people enter a dentist's office with a smile on their face. But David Cano Martinez was beaming when he sat down to get a tooth filled Monday at Mission of Mercy's free dental clinic at Frederick's Church of the Brethren.

Through an English-language translator, Martinez said he had been waiting at the free dental clinic since 4 a.m. He was treated at 2:20 p.m., and he was lucky – he was the last patient to see a dentist before the clinic closed for the day.

Martinez, a former construction worker who is unemployed and has no dental insurance, is one of more than 2,200 Frederick County residents who use the free dental clinic at its sites in Frederick and Knoxville.

All those people who rely on the nonprofit healthcare organization could soon lose free dental care, as Mission of Mercy struggles to fund the program. Though many more people are seeking the group's free medical and dental services, donations from foundations, individuals and businesses have dropped by 10 to 20 percent.

"We have been struggling with providing adequate funding," said David Liddle, Mission of Mercy's chief financial officer and director of expansion.

Mission of Mercy is solely funded by donations and receives no government funding. The group has been forced to look for ways to trim its services, Liddle said. In Frederick County, for example, the agency eliminated its Thurmont site for medical and dental clinics.

The free dental clinic, which also serves patients in Carroll County and in Pennsylvania, could also become a victim if the organization is unable to raise $15,000 for the program by Feb. 1. It costs $45,000 per year to run the program, but the organization so far has gathered only $30,000, Liddle said.

Now, the nonprofit is appealing to "anyone who has ever had a bad toothache" to help preserve the free dental clinic.

"Individual donors have been hurt by the economy," said Dr. Michael Sullivan, the free medical director of the nonprofit, who said he understands why donations are drying up. But he said the agency doesn't have many options – it would either have to cut its free medical clinics or sacrifice the dental program.

"If we have to choose between the dental clinic and cutting down the medical clinic from three to two days a week, we would choose to cut the dental clinic," he said. "It would be a big loss in Frederick County and the other counties that we serve."

In Frederick County, most of those who seek help are working adults with jobs that do not provide dental insurance.

"The need now is greater than ever," said Allan Harris, a clinical assistant who works with the volunteer dentists at the free clinic. "The people are coming in worse and worse condition."

The site at the Church of the Bretheren in Frederick is the largest for the mobile dental clinic. By the time dentists start setting up their equipment at the church at about 9 a.m., between 35 to 38 people are usually already waiting in line, Harris said.

"That used to be 25," Harris said.

On a typical day, there is only time for eight to 10 patients to visit the dentist, who has one chair for patients. The dentists are all volunteers, who work with the clinics on their days off. The makeshift mobile clinic is equipped scantily – a chair, tools and basic equipment. Similar to portable dental clinics in Iraq, it mostly offers basic dental services such as tooth extractions and fillings. In a regular dentist practice, a patient may have to pay $100 or $200 for these services, Jayman said.

"We do emergency treatments ... the bare minimum," said Dr. John Jayman, a dentist who has a practice in Carroll County.

Unlike regular dentists' offices where a patient would get one procedure per visit, dentists at the free clinic try to fit as many procedures as they can because they don't know when their patients would be able to come back.

"We've seen many swollen faces before," Jayman said.

E-mail Margarita Raycheva at mraycheva@gazette.net.

Visit www.amissionofmercy.org,

call 301-682-5683 or contact

the office at 22 S. Market St., Suite 6D, Frederick.