Drill Team : Volunteers Give Free Dental Care to Children From Poor Families

When Jesus Zaragoza smiles, he reveals front teeth covered with brownish-yellow decay.

The 9-year-old boy had never received dental treatment before Saturday, when a team of dentists cleaned, filled, capped or pulled the teeth of more than 250 indigent children at Paul Revere Elementary School.

Jesus’ mother, Rosa Zaragoza, who moved here from Michoacan, Mexico, two years ago, said she can’t afford to take her son to the dentist and was grateful for the free service that not only fixed his teeth but gave parents a lesson on good oral hygiene.

“Vale la pena (It’s worth it),” Zaragoza said about preventing and treating tooth decay.

The program, AYUDA, which means help in Spanish, began providing free dental care to poor people in Central America 25 years ago. This year, AYUDA founder Harris Done, an Anaheim dentist, decided to bring the service to some of the poorest children in this city.

Saturday’s clinic was the third in a series of five this year, each at a different school.

“Most of these kids have never seen a dentist before and they’re poor immigrants who really need the help,” Done said while scooping out mold from one of 11-year-old Juana Rojas’ molars.

He said he started the program here after an Anaheim City School District nurse told him that many children in Latino neighborhoods knew nothing about dental hygiene and could not afford dental services.

“Our goal is to take care of every poor kid who can’t pay for dental care,” Done said.

Done, five other dentists, six dental hygienists, nurses, teachers, administrators and students volunteered their services.

Parents and several high school students from throughout Orange County sterilized dental tools while Paul Revere School students shined flashlights in patients’ mouths and translated for the dentists to help them perform the operations quickly.

Patients stretched out on tables while their teeth were drilled.

Angel de La Cruz, whose dental visit was his first, said he learned a valuable lesson.

The 11-year-old boy opened his mouth wide as dentist Chuck Tozer pulled out two rotten teeth. An instant later, he got up calmly and said, “I think I better brush my teeth more.”

Salvador Gonzales, 12, said he liked his first visit. “I have no cavities,” he said smiling.

Maria Guzman, 12, wasn’t so lucky. “She has some pretty bad cavities,” Done said while filling four molars and pulling a baby tooth.

Instead of extracting a severely decayed molar, Done offered Maria a free root canal at his office. “I just hate to pull out permanent teeth,” he said.

“The kids are getting dental attention that they normally would not get,” Anaheim City School District Supt. Meliton Lopez said. “This service is wonderful.”

Teachers and parents agreed.

“This was my daughter’s first time with a dentist,” Vilma Lemus said in Spanish. Her daughter, Roxanna, 13, got one cavity sealed. “If it weren’t for (AYUDA), I could not take my children to dentists because it’s so expensive,” she said. Her family immigrated from Guatemala 11 years ago.

“It makes us feel good to do this,” Done said as he filled four of David Barragan’s teeth. The 7-year-old boy clenched his hands, tightened his body and blinked his eyes several times during the procedure.

“I get real satisfaction helping like this,” Done said. “The kids who volunteer get to spend a day interacting with professionals and some of them are inspired to go to college and become dentists. And the patients realize they have a responsibility to take care of their teeth.”

Done said he plans to expand the program next year to help fix the teeth of poor children throughout Orange County, then California and eventually the nation and the world.

“It’s an ambitious program, but why not try?” he said.