Springfield dental clinic has waiting list of 32 months

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. -- Sign up now to see a dentist at the Jordan Valley Community Health Center's clinic. Come back in December 2006 for the appointment.

After only one year in existence, the clinic has a 32-month waiting list with 3,537 names -- and officials say others who need care aren't making appointments because of that delay.

"When patients call here, half of them, if they know there's a three-year wait, don't put their name on the list," said Brooks Miller, the clinic's executive director. "I don't want to give them false hope that they will get care in the next month."

Quinton Jackson, a father of five from Springfield, is in the next-to-last spot on the list. He can't afford a private dentist and can't find one in Greene County who will take Medicaid.

"My teeth are just killing me," Jackson said.

Dr. Sara Vizcarra, a dentist at the clinic, shares Jackson's frustration -- especially since so many patients have neglected their teeth for so long that extensive work is needed.

"There's no such thing as a 'simple' extraction or a 'simple' filling," she said.

The staff hopes to add two more dentists, one more hygienist and five more dental chairs this summer, Miller said -- possibly enough to double patient visits from 6,000 to 12,000 a year.

"We hope to be up to 17 dental chairs by the end of 2006, and that would bring us close to where we need to be," Miller said. "It's kind of a growing population, but that's where we really need to focus our efforts and grow that way."

There could be trouble ahead, though.

State lawmakers are considering ending the Medicaid adult dental benefit. That would force about 20 percent of Jordan Valley's Medicaid clients to pay on a sliding fee scale, said clinic financial officer Ruth Shryack.

Only 26 percent of the state's private-practice dentists treat Medicaid patients, said Chris Stewart, director of the Oral Health Network of Missouri.

"Every health center in the state is experiencing that level of need," Stewart said.

No dentists in Greene County are accepting new Medicaid patients, said Brenda Claxton, executive director of the Greater Springfield Dental Society.

Some help in other ways, however.

Last year, dental society members from 16 counties donated about $150,000 worth of dentistry and oral surgery to 658 children as part of "Give Kids a Smile Day," Claxton said.

About 60 dentists also treat emergency dental problems referred through the public schools, Claxton said, which totals about $30,000 a year in donated care.

Jordan Valley's waiting list of 3,537 people is the longest of the state's 24 public dental clinics, Stewart said. That's partly because Greene County has so many Medicaid clients, and because Jordan Valley switched to a cumulative tally in November.

"We wanted to get a handle on the magnitude of the problem," Miller said.