Monday’s dental care event provided checkups, cleanings, X-rays, sealants and referrals to other dental offices, like Good Neighbor House, to local refugee children through a federal refugee impact grant.
The grant was awarded to the Montgomery County Job and Family Services, along with the Montgomery County Educational Services Center.
“It’s just been amazing to watch the student hygienists build rapport, build comfort with the children,” Farrell said.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
As part of the grant requirements, Farrell helps find what unmet needs there are within local refugee communities and then tries to address those needs. Other examples include car seat and shoe distribution events, financial literacy classes, resume writing events, preschool enrollment and others.
“Today, working with Sinclair Community College and their dental hygiene program, we are doing a youth dental checkup, cleaning event,” Farrell said on Monday.
The Sinclair Community College Midmark Dental Health Clinic is a teaching facility where services performed by the student hygienists are evaluated by qualified instructors.
“There’s just a lot of opportunity for their students to get the experience and exposure that they need in a supervised environment,” Farrell said.
Interpreters were also available for the refugees and their families, who were identified by Catholic Social Services and Ebenezer Healthcare Access.
“It was nice. It was a great success,” said Dalia Abdelraheem, an interpreter at Monday’s event.
Most of the refugees were from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, she said. Some refugees were from Sudan. The families have been in the U.S. between one and five months.
“This has been a lot of fun. We’ve really enjoyed it,” said clinic director Dr. Bonita Kipling, chair and professor of Dental Health Services at Sinclair.
Sinclair’s Midmark Dental Health Clinic typically sees patients from the community who don’t have insurance or have difficulty getting appointments. Costs for the appointments are generally between $5 and $10, sometimes more if sealants are needed.
Credit: Jim Noelker
Credit: Jim Noelker
“We do look for occasions like this where we can help individuals in the community who don’t have access to the care they need,” Kipling said.
Monday’s dental care event for the refugee youth provided a learning opportunity for the Sinclair students to work with children from a different culture who were as young as two years old up to teens.
“Most of these children have not had any dental care at all, so this was their very first experience,” Kipling said.
It was unique experience for the Sinclair students to help the children know what to expect at a dental office, said Jessica Brinegar, a dental hygiene student who was also recently voted the class representative for 2025.
“A lot of them didn’t know what they were coming into, so we just kind of taught them what tools we were using, why we were using them, and what they can do at home,” Brinegar said.
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