NSU CDM Lasting Impressions Fall 2018

12 | COLLEGE OF DENTAL MEDICINE 7,500-square-foot facility a few miles east of the original location. And, in 2005, the name was changed to be more inclusive of the agency’s mission of health, education, and outreach. Caridad Center continues to provide health services to uninsured children and adults who live in Palm Beach County and to those who are at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty level. “Nova Southeastern University’s College of Dental Medicine has had a long partnership with Caridad Center,” said Laura Kallus, chief executive officer of the center. But, it was a challenging time a few years ago. “I had many volunteer dentists, but what I didn’t have were pediatric dental specialists to care for very young children,” Kallus said. “This is where NSU’s CDM was so crucial.” In 2016, the West Palm Beach grant or- ganization Quantum Foundation donated $200,000 to create the program, which provided the means for the CDM to send pediatric residents and faculty members to Caridad. The pediatric dental residents work in Caridad’s clinic on Mondays and Tuesdays, per- forming services from simple checkups to crowns, fillings, and tooth extractions on young children. TEAM EFFORT “Almost every child who comes to Caridad is not arriving for a dental checkup, although we wish that were so. They are coming here because the child is in pain, or because their parent or caregiver can see a cavity,” said Margaret Kim, D.D.S., who was working with residents at Caridad the day Albert arrived. “Some- times, it may be their second experience, and the first visit ended up with the children having a tooth pulled because of a cavity, so that is what they remember.” After the second appointment, it was clear that Albert needed surgery, which would require anesthesia. “In cases such as his, he needed to be treated at a hos- pital,” Kallus said. “But we don’t have funding for that.” The CDM Pediatric Dentistry Program has an affili- ation agreement with the Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital in Hollywood, Florida. So, Kim researched prospects there. While she committed to perform Albert’s surgery, she needed an operating room and an anesthesiologist at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital. And that would cost money. FINDING THE HELP “NSU took on getting the costs reduced a bit at the hospital for the operating room and the anesthesia, but the medical bill would still be thousands of dollars, even with the reductions,” Kallus said. Her donors had been generous to the clinic inside Caridad Center on so many occasions in the past, she decided to approach them now. “I spoke to every donor who has given us a dollar, and I would say, ‘I have a four-year-old child waiting for surgery,’ and I would tell Albert’s story.” Her plea worked. John Wood and Ann Fairfax Wood, who had been generous supporters of Caridad Center and its dental clinic in the past, stepped up to help. The Boca Raton residents, who created the Fairfax Wood Scholarship Foundation in memory of their eldest son, Bruce, had given money to the clinic for It Takes a Villa ge From left, fourth-year dental student Tyler Frey, first-year pediatric dental resident David Luther, dental assistants Janet Leon and Simone Santos, CDM professor Nilma Feliciano, Caridad dental clinic manager Claudia Avendano, fourth-year dental student Gregory Quattlebaum, and first-year pediatric dental resident Muadh Algomaiah