Making A Difference: Baltimore Health Care Professionals Reach Out To Community

Another week begins with a feel good story about health care involving children. Dr. Patricia Bell-McDuffie, the director of Oral Health Services for the Baltimore City Health Department, along with many other medical professionals came together Monday morning at an East Baltimore community center to provide check up and oral health inspections on children. This clinic was intended to help low-income inner-city children improve their dental care. The simplest instructions from “don’t forget to brush every night before you go to bed” really went a long way in helping these children who might be to young to understand the importance of brushing.
At this clinic, doctors were able to notice, through simple examinations, many problems from tooth decay to gum disease which were prevalent in the children. It is hard to discuss the importance of oral health care among children without remembered young Deamonte Driver who died at the age of 12 from a tooth infection. All these programs and clinics, which are happening across the United States, might be because of that young boy. They are in one sense being done in the memory of that young boy who by giving his life might have saved the lives of hundreds or even thousands of children across the world. U.S. Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, accused the Bush administration of failing to provide adequate dental care to poor children, and in May introduced "Deamonte's Law," which would increase dental services in community health centers and train more pediatric dentists. "We must protect our children from this sort of needless suffering, and we must begin with the youngest of children," Cummings said this morning at the community center before the examinations got under way. "An untreated tooth infection is far scarier and uncomfortable than the routine care that can prevent it."
It’s a wonderful thing to be able to read about doctors and other health care professionals helping volunteer their time to provide valuable information and life lessons to children which in turn can keep them healthy and alive for many years. Not everybody’s charity work goes noticed but that does not mean people aren’t out there helping children and teaching them about health care. I believe this article should be motivation for anyone who has been educated and knows how to practice health care to go out into their community and teach not only the young but also people of all ages. Going out into the community and providing oral health care for those who are in need is one of the reasons why I want to attend dental school and become a dentist. It is not possible to help everyone at once but by helping one person, they are able to take the same knowledge and hopefully pass it on to others or even tell other that they should attend a free clinic for a check-up or examination. Provide health slowly but surely is better than not providing it at all. Hopefully, for months and years to come we will be reading more articles about good deeds like the one that inspired this post.