NSU Horizons Spring 2012

“Even when people said I was pretty, I didn’t feel pretty. If you saw me on the road, I just walked with my head down,” she said. “But now if you see me, I am the rst one to smile.” That smile was restored by student dentists and their instructors from Nova Southeastern University’s College of Dental Medicine. Claudette, 50, found the strength to get herself free from her husband with the help of her sister and the coun- selors at Women in Distress of Broward County, Inc. She made a plan of escape and is now divorced and working two jobs to support herself. “He doesn’t know where I am. I’m safe now,” she said. The counselors helped to repair her psyche and spirit, but she credits NSU’s student dentists and the dental professors with repairing her damaged mouth and helping to build her self-con dence. The college had a dental suite at the shelter and treated the clients there under a federal grant. “There are people who are less likely to come to the college for care, so we are intent on bringing our services to them,” said Stephen Abel, D.D.S., associate dean of extramural and public health programs at the dental college. “It increases access to care for the patients, and for the students, it’s exposing them to popula- tions they know very little about.” Under the program, dental students also treat patients with HIV-AIDS at a clinic in Oakland Park, children with craniofacial issues at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, and children with autism spectrum disorders at the Baudhuin Preschool at the Mailman Segal Center for Human Development on NSU’s main campus. Much of the College of Dental Medicine’s work with special-needs populations has been made possible by grants from the federal government, Broward County, Patriot National Insurance Group, and Procter & Gamble, as well as from foundations such as DentaQuest Foundation, the Dr. John T. Macdonald Foundation, and the Health Foundation of South Florida. The dental students also have treated prison inmates and women in a drug rehabilitation facility and com- pleted rotations in rural Central Florida. Abel believes treating special-needs patients bene ts the students as much as it does the patients. “We hope it enhances their learning,” Abel said, “but also their decision making in who they may serve and their volunteerism after they are out in practice.” Working at Women in Distress gave students invaluable experience in treating patients who have been victimized, he said. “More than 90 percent of these patients have facial damage. Women who walk into a dentist’s of ce are likely to say they fell, and it’s not something the doctor would likely bring up, but if students spend time taking care of these patients, they will be able to assess the situation, validate to the patient that it’s not their fault, and refer them to someplace they may feel safe,” Abel said. “Very few schools do this.” Mary Riedel, president and CEO of Women in Distress, a 100-bed, 16 HORIZONS Oscar Padilla, D.D.S., a special-needs pediatric dentist at NSU, treats three- and-a-half-year-old Kevin Cordova from the Baudhuin Preschool at the Mailman Segal Center for Human Development.