Project: Madre Angela Dental Clinic
Organization: St. Mary's Hospital
Milwaukee, WI
Story submitted by Bill Solberg, Director of Community Services, St. Mary's Hospital - Mission Services.

George's Good Fortune

George had the good fortune of having a constant throbbing dental pain for more than two weeks. He was a 58 year-old man with a history of long term depression, living in a single room apartment in a converted old hotel in downtown Milwaukee.

As a person with long-term depression, George struggled each day to get up and get moving. On good days, his long gray hair was pulled neatly into a pony tail, he was clean-shaven, his clothes generally matched and he had enough energy to spend time socializing with other men in the lobby of the old hotel. On bad days, hair-combing, shaving, clothes-matching and socializing were pretty much left up to chance. On his bad days, despite his dental pain, George did nothing but lay in his bed in his room.

On several good days, he had gone to emergency departments for his pain, but received only pain medication and referrals to private dentists. George was without dental insurance or any funds to pay for dental care. Fortunately, one Emergency Department social worker referred him to Madre Angela Dental Clinic (MADC), a non-profit program to provide urgent dental care for people without resources.

George went to an MADC urgent care session where he had his most diseased tooth extracted and had a full assessment of his mouth. Once again, he was fortunate that the supervising dentist was suspicious of a small white sore in his mouth. George was referred for a biopsy of his sore.

He was found to have an oral cancer that required immediate attention. The clinic staff managed to get him approved for emergency medical care and the cancer was removed. George has gone on to have extractions of other severely diseased teeth and ultimately received dentures from MADC; but it was the good fortune of his throbbing pain that initially brought him to the clinic and probably saved his life.

As the only community provider of urgent dental care for people in poverty, Madre Angela Dental Clinic provides “Dental care that changes lives”. For some people the clinic changes lives by relieving long-term pain. For others, the clinic changes lives by providing dentures to improve employment options. For a few, like George, Madre Angela Dental Clinic provides dental care that saves lives.

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