Volunteer Dentists Fill a Hole in Veterans’ Services

Soon after becoming executive director of Veterans Charities of Orange County, Deanne Tate made a simple discovery that is changing the lives of homeless veterans.

Tate wanted to find jobs for them, but realized that $10 cash and $25 worth of thrift store clothing--some of the organization’s traditional handouts--were not enough to improve the appearance of down-and-out vets.

“It’s very hard to get a job when you don’t have any teeth,” she said.

So, Tate turned to local dentists for help.

Late last year, she asked the Orange County Dental Society to distribute fliers in its monthly magazine Impressions, urging dentists to “Adopt a Veteran” and provide them with free dental care.

To date, 13 dentists have signed up for the program and provided about $28,000 in dental care for 13 veterans--figures that are expected to rise as more dentists sign on and as veterans continue with office visits. The second round of announcements went out recently to about 1,500 Orange County dentists.

“When I came here, we were not dealing with homeless vets,” said Tate, who took over as director in January. “Instead of giving them a $10 donation and a voucher for clothes, I thought we should be doing more for them.”

Dental outreach programs are not new. In 1993, according to a American Dental Assn. survey, dentists provided $3.3 billion worth of free or discounted care, mostly to low-income people and those with disabilities.

But veterans and dental officials said they knew of no other program that provides services in quite the same manner as the Veterans Charities program.

Dentists throughout the country applauded the effort, but caution that such programs should ensure that only needy veterans receive the dental care.

A spokesman for Veterans Charities, Roger D. Kenney, said he does not check the records for each veteran to determine what, if any, government dental benefits they might qualify for.

But Kenney said that even Department of Veterans Affairs benefits do not include many of the services local dentists are providing.

“All these things [such as gum work and teeth cleanings] that are a luxury, they’re not going to get,” said Kenney.

To qualify for government dental care, most veterans must have a service-related dental injury or have been a prisoner of war. Others must pay standard fees; a tooth extraction, for example, costs $119 at the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Long Beach, which includes Orange County in its jurisdiction.

Many of the Orange County dentists who volunteered for the program are veterans, and often request to treat those who served in the same branch of the military.

“I just figured it was an opportunity to help somebody out who’s not as fortunate as I am,” said Laguna Beach dentist Ron May, who wanted to help a former Marine because he had served with them in Vietnam while working as a Navy dentist. “You always hear about them [veterans] when they go crazy and shoot up a post office, but there are a lot of us who are quite normal, healthy, well-adapted people.”

May said he provided a veteran with about $2,000 worth of dental care, which included tooth extractions, cleanings and dentures.

“He was just so stoked,” recalled May. “It was really rewarding to see how much pleasure he got out of it.”

One veteran receiving care under the Veterans Charities program is Santa Ana resident Charlie Martin, 48, who served in Turkey in the late 1960s.

Martin, who maintained decoding equipment for the Air Force, rarely visited the dentist after his eighth birthday because of a lingering fear of dental work and occasional homelessness during his adult life.

“I’m a chicken,” said Martin. “Over the years, it just took its toll. I don’t go unless [I feel] pain.”

Martin, who works for Veterans Charities, was forced to the dentist’s chair in January when an abscessed tooth puffed his cheek out two inches.

Two months later, Martin returned to the dentist for a follow-up appointment.

After peering into Martin’s mouth, Santa Ana dentist Ronald C. Dunscombe--who once served as an Air Force dentist--declared that some of Martin’s remaining teeth are nearly abscessed.

“Can we fix ‘em?” asked Martin, completing his fifth visit to a dentist in 40 years.

“You bet,” said Dunscombe.