PACOIMA : Grant to Clinic to Help Increase Dental Services

With the help of a First Interstate Bank grant, an additional 500 youngsters from low-income families will get dental services this year.

Thanks to a $35,000 contribution to the Telfair PTA Health Center, a second dental chair has been added to the facility at Telfair Elementary School in Pacoima. There are now a total of three chairs in the PTSA clinic program, including one at an affiliated Canoga Park clinic.

The donated money originally was to have gone toward a party for the 3,000 volunteers that raised $60 million for the United Way of Greater Los Angeles. But when the January earthquake destroyed the San Fernando Dental Clinic and its equipment, the bank redirected the money to set up the chair at Telfair.

The Pacoima health center will now be able to offer 1,000 low-income youths enrolled in Los Angeles district schools low-cost or free dental care. Until recently, the clinic could only provide emergency dental care, said Rovert Taylor, manager of the district’s health clinics.

In addition to the chairs, the money will go toward dental hygiene education for preschoolers and kindergarten students.

“We’re going to teach them preventive dental care. These are children who don’t own a toothbrush,” said Barbara Baker, president of the San Fernando Valley Dental Hygiene Society.

Among the programs Baker is offering is a course for parents on baby tooth decay. “Parents aren’t supposed to put their babies to bed with a bottle of milk or sugar water,” Baker said. She added that she has seen many cases of 4-year-olds with rotten teeth.

The San Fernando branch of First Interstate will be raising additional funds to provide a television for the dental room at the clinic, according to manager Oscar Monteagudo.