NORTHFIELD, N.J. (AP) - Leonard Giordano, 26, of Freehold is in his last year at the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine in Newark.
He is spending that year in Northfield, treating local patients at the John H. Cronin Dental Clinic, run in partnership with Atlantic County Government.
For almost 25 years area residents in need of dental services have been able to use the clinic, which accepts private insurance and Medicaid, and will also set up a sliding fee scale based on income for people without insurance.
“Not many dentists take Medicare or Medicaid,” Linda Stowe, the clinic’s manager, told The Press of Atlantic City (https://bit.ly/2hccu4R). “We can do this because we are a teaching institution.”
The Northfield clinic opened in 1992 and a second smaller clinic in Galloway Township opened in 2004. There is also a clinic in Somerdale and one at the Dental School in Newark.
The Northfield clinic has eight chairs with five full-time students who work there from for a full academic year, plus three more students who rotate in every two weeks. The site has five dental assistants and two office staff as well as three practicing faculty dentists who oversee the students. The Galloway site has six chairs.
There are also specialists who come in once a week including an oral surgeon and a periodontist.
“It is run just like a private practice,” Stowe said.
The Northfield site sees about 500 people a month. The county provides the clinic space, which is connected to the back of the Meadowview Nursing Home on Dolphin Avenue. The clinic also serves Meadowview residents.
The Northfield site just had a $1 million renovation that includes a new digital x-ray machine so students can train on the latest equipment. The county paid to spruce up the building.
Atlantic County executive Dennis Levinson said the county lobbied to get the clinic because they saw it as an asset for residents. It is named for a former health department director.
“We are providing a safety net that is greatly needed,” he said. “There are thousands of people in the county who have lost jobs, and this is one way county government can help.”
Karen Rodin, one of the three teaching dentists along with Christine Stinton and Kevin Carey, said each of the five year-long dental students gets a “family” of patients for their year.
“We try to maintain continuity with the patients,” she said. New students coming in the next year will take over each group, and the three faculty dentists are also on site.
“We provide that consistency,” Rodin said. “We are here for the patients, too.”
Rodin said having students work on residents of Meadowview also gives them experience with medically fragile patients whose medical needs can affect their dental care.
Giordano, who plans to join a private practice, said he wanted to work at the clinic to have an experience that was similar to working in a private practice.
“This is more like a full-time job,” he said. “You see more patients every day, and it builds up your stamina. Here we have a dental assistant. We also learn about time management and coordinating with the front desk. You have to work as a team.”
He said he typically sees four to five patients a day, still below the 10 to 15 he might see in private practice.
He said when he was young he had an orthodontist he really liked which got him interested in dentistry.
“I really enjoyed going there,” he said. “They were like a family and I liked that. I worked there as an assistant in college.”
A patient named Mary from Egg Harbor Township said she has been bringing her husband, who is 85, to the clinic for about five years and she has started coming for herself as well. They do not have dental insurance and the clinic has been affordable.
“His teeth were thinning and they have been doing a remarkable job for him,” she said of her husband. “They are very thorough because they are teaching also, not just doing. They are very professional.”
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Information from: The Press of Atlantic City (N.J.), https://www.pressofatlanticcity.com
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