UNE dental students provide free dental care for Old Orchard Beach students

Two UNE dental students perform a free cleaning for RSU 23 students during the annual Give Kids a Smile event. COURTESY PHOTO

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Dozens of student providers from the University of New England’s doctoral dental medicine and undergraduate dental hygiene degree programs provided over $13,000 in free dental care to nearly 100 students from Old Orchard Beach on Friday, Feb. 7.

The students, from the College of Dental Medicine and Department of Dental Hygiene, performed the no-cost dental screening examinations, oral hygiene education, cleanings, fluoride varnishes, and sealants to a record 93 students from the town’s school district, RSU 23, at the University’s Oral Health Center in Portland.

The partnership, now in its fourth year, was part of national Give Kids a Smile celebrations held across the country on Friday, in which thousands of dentists nationwide provide underserved children with much-needed dental care.

Nicole Kimmes, dean of the College of Dental Medicine, said the event’s goals align perfectly with the mission of UNE’s dental school, the sole educator of qualified dentists in Northern New England: to shape the future of dentistry while improving the health of rural and underserved areas and populations.

“Untreated dental disease can lead to severe pain that impacts a child’s ability to eat and drink properly, disrupts their sleep patterns, affects their concentration, and contributes to changes in behavior,” Kimmes said. “Throughout the morning, I visited operatories, talked with many of the patients, and enjoyed hearing about their appointment as they told me how many teeth they have and smiled to show me their sparkly teeth.”

For several patients — some as young as 4 years of age — it was their first time visiting the dentist. That didn’t faze dental medicine student Drew Barry ’25, whose first patient of the day met both criteria.

“He actually came in saying what he does when he’s scared is to take deep breaths and count. And we told him to do that at any point today. But he didn’t need to,” Barry said. “We gave him a full tour of the operatory, showed him what everything was. He was very curious. And he acclimated really well. We could tell he felt he was in a place where he could learn new things.”