Thousands queue for free dental care in Los Angeles
Over five thousand people queued for a free dental and general health clinic at the Los Angeles Sports Arena on Sunday.
The arena will host a huge 7 day clinic, which will offer people basic dental and general medical care free of charge. The clinic will start on Tuesday and will run from 6am to 6pm for the next seven days. Over 300 volunteers will be involved in the operation, including dentists, doctors and nurses.
The services offered to patients will include dental procedures such as tooth extractions, fillings and dental examinations, as well as eye examinations, diabetes screening, general health check-ups and mammograms.
Among the 5,000 patients that queued for slots on the first two days of the clinic were low income families, illegal immigrants and many people that were unemployed or disabled; most of the people didn’t have insurance plans and those that did had policies that don’t cover dental treatment or eye examinations.
All appointments for Tuesday and Wednesday have now been allocated to patients and the remaining patients will have to wait for an announcement to see when they can queue for a slot on another day.
Organisers hope to treat thousands of patients in the coming week but they realise that they will never be able to help everyone that needs dental and medical care because the extent of the problem in America is far too great; millions of Americans can’t afford even the most basic insurance plans, which often means they go without the dental and medical care they desperately need. Clinics like this one held at the Los Angeles Sports Arena can help thousands of people but this is just the tip of the iceberg.
It is hoped that President Obama’s healthcare reform bill will put an end to the terrible situation in the USA; plans are set to come into play in the next five years and affordable healthcare and dental care will hopefully be available to all.
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I have medi medi but dentist told me that they can not see me unless it’s an emergency so I am wondering if I could attend one of your free days I am 82 year old with SSI please let me know?