Mandeville Lions to open free dental clinic for children

MANDEVILLE, Manchester — The Lions Club of Mandeville will open a free dental clinic for children on Wint Road in the coming weeks, following years of fund-raising through its Men Who Cook event. The three-chair dental suite was furnished at a cost of more than US$50,000 and housed in a building renovated at just over three $3 million. “A few years ago we had volunteers from the United States, and at that time we didn’t understand the need there was for proper dental hygiene,” said Judy King, chair of the Lions Club of Mandeville Dental Clinic Committee. She added that the dental clinic will offer cleaning, extractions, and filling services. “It has been long in coming but we have been saving over the years to bring us to this point. Each year that we had Men Who Cook we put aside a portion of that money and we used it to take us to this point. I must add, though, that quite a bit of the money for the equipment came through funding from our international foundation, that is the Lions Club. They gave us the money to buy the equipment, and we are still in the process of buying other supplies,” she told journalists last Wednesday during the club’s appreciation and awards social on Wint Road. During the event a symbolic cheque of almost $2.3 million was presented by the club to the hurricane-battered Black River Hospital. King said there will be a partnership with the Ministry of Health and Wellness to operate the dental clinic. “We have had tremendous assistance through the dental unit at the Southern Regional Health Authority. They have been guiding us in terms of how to set the place up and what our needs are. They will come with the staffing. We will start with two days per week, but we hope to increase it over time. Initially it will be just for children, and we expect to get it off the ground in November,” she said. King also expressed hope that the dental clinic will help reduce fear and anxiety. “People often have a fear of going to the dentist, so if we can start our children with regular dental checks very early and introduce them to this kind of setting, they will not have the fear,” she said.