SDA to hold ‘Clinic With a Heart’ Sunday

The Saipan Seventh-day Adventist Dental Clinic will be conducting its annual Clinic With a Heart program on Sunday, May 27, from 8am to noon.

This marks the fifth year of Clinic With a Heart, which usually occurs every year in late May or early June and serves as an opportunity to provide free dental care to the community.

The event was initiated at the Loma Linda University School of Dentistry, from which majority of the SDA Dental Clinic staff graduated, according to dental hygienist Lori Serna.

“Since most of us are Loma Linda graduates here, we all volunteered for the Clinic With a Heart while we were students,” Serna said. “Under the guidance of our clinic director, Dr. Kenneth Pierson, we’ve been able to bring the program here and it has become an annual event.”

Serna said they always get a “great turnout” each year at their clinic along Quartermaster Road in Chalan Laulau.

“People come out here and line up as early as 2am. Last year, we had 200 people by 6am that’s why we ended up seeing the first 100 patients on the first day and the other 100 on a different day,” she said.

Despite the weather, Serna said they anticipate another big crowd at this year’s event given that the Commonwealth Health Center has closed down its dental clinic and most private clinics no longer accept Medicaid.

“There’s just a huge need for this kind of event so we want people to know about it,” she said. “We want people to come in if they can.”

According to Serna, SDA has done “a really good job” in promoting the event, informing government offices about it, including schools and the Division of Youth Services.

Print and radio advertisements will also be out over the weekend. “We try to get it out to the community. We like to let as much people know about it,” she added.

Although most of the patients they attend to during the free dental clinic are grownups, Serna said they will provide free dental care to anyone, including children, on Sunday. SDA has another open clinic event, “Give Kids a Smile,” where only children are accommodated.

Serna said Clinic With a Heart is also done at the SDA clinic in Guam, which is able to encourage other dental clinics to partner with them.

“We hope we could get other clinics to join us because we have to give back to the community,” said Serna. “While it is a business, we are still in the business of helping people and not just helping people who have money. We need to help people that just can’t afford it.”

Serna invites the public to avail of free dental services at SDA during the Clinic With a Heart event. For more information, call 234-6323.