Fixing teeth, helping those in need in the U.S. Stony Brook dentist travels to Tennessee to treat poor adults and kids who haven't had care in decades
By Mara M. Zonderman
November 25, 2008 | 03:18 PM Grundy County, Tenn. is about 900 miles from Suffolk County, but in terms of living standards, some may be tempted to classify it as being in the developing world. With median household income of $26,752 and an average house value of $71,843, according to Grundy County's website, 19 percent of Grundy's residents lack health insurance, and 13 percent of all children under the age of 18 are without health coverage. Further, Grundy County, about 90 miles southeast of Nashville, had in 1998 (the latest year for which figures were readily available) less than seven dentists per 100,000 people. Facing these extraordinary conditions, Stony Brook resident Dr. Shelly Press-Sampson, a dentist with 31 years of experience, traveled to Grundy the weekend after Halloween to bring dental services to people who had not seen a dentist in years, if ever. "I wanted to do something to help people who were not as fortunate as me or a lot of other people," she said. Press-Sampson went to help the people of Grundy County under the auspices of Project RAM, Remote Area Medical. Project RAM, which has been featured on "60 Minutes," was created to help the uninsured receive free dental, vision and health services. "I first explored Project RAM on Google," Press-Sampson said, and after some initial reading, she downloaded the 60 Minutes profile of the treatment program. "The pictures sold me. "I realized that I do not need to go out of the country to do this, because there are plenty of people in this country who need aid," she said. With one son out of college and the other a "very self-sufficient" senior at Ward Melville High School, Press-Sampson decided the time was right to help America's poor. "If I don't do it now … I just have to do it now," she recalled thinking. Working under a Tennessee law that allows dentists from other states to practice, Press-Sampson traveled to Coalmont, Tenn., with fellow Suffolk dentists Dr. Scott Firestone, who practices in Melville, and Dr. Patrick Restivo, who practices in Westhampton. In Coalmont, they joined about 20 other dentists, along with hygienists and assistants, and provided dental care in a portable clinic set up in the Grundy County High School gymnasium. They worked for two 11-hour days seeing people who, as Press-Sampson wrote in an article for a professional journal, consisted of, "… people often wait[ing] for hours. Some even slept in their cars or trucks. There were adults who had not seen a dentist since they were 10 years old. Much of the dental neglect was due to lack of education, abuse, drug usage (methamphetamine), poverty, and lack of dental services in the county." A native of West Orange, N.J., Press-Sampson earned her undergraduate degree at the University of Maryland and her dental degree at what was then called the College of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, now known as the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey. Press-Sampson is married to an orthopedic surgeon at Stony Brook Hospital who specializes in microsurgery of the hand and foot, or "the paws and claws," as Press-Sampson said with a smile. Seeing so many patients in such a short period of time called for Press-Sampson and her fellow dental professionals to use creative problem-solving techniques. At one point, an overloaded electrical system caused the clinic's sterilization units to shut off. At another point, Press-Sampson recalled, Firestone "found a portable hand-held x-ray machine, and sent an assistant to another county to get x-ray film from another dentist." Press-Sampson said she and her fellow Project RAM veterans are looking to establish a similar program to help the poor in the rural areas of New York State but are running into political and legal problems in setting up the program. Nevertheless, she said the experience was worthwhile. "It was really quite an awesome experience," she said. "It kind of just takes your breath away to go down there and see how poor those people are."