photo by Kelly Petryszyn
Thanks to new dentures from AxessPointe, one patient has regained her smile for the first time since 2001. It’s stories like hers that demonstrate the immense impact of the public health dentistry performed at AxessPointe Community Health Centers, full-service primary care clinics that accept all patients.
“They have been deprived of this service because there’s not a lot of dentists,” says AxessPointe dentist Dr. Shilpa Kapoor, “that go to people that are on Medicaid.”
Kapoor is the director of advanced dentistry at AxessPointe, which accepts those with private insurance, Medicaid and Medicare, as well as provides a sliding fee scale for those without insurance. Her advocacy for the underserved transformed AxessPointe. When she arrived in 2021, its dental clinic was only offering fillings, extractions and exams for the Medicaid population. Kapoor urged AxessPointe to add advanced services like dentures, crowns, mouth guards, whitening and more at its Kent location.
But Kapoor didn’t stop there. Because many wheelchair users, geriatric patients and bedridden people have transportation issues, she advocated to get AxessPointe’s existing mobile clinic ready for dental and medical services. Now, the fully outfitted vehicle features two operatories with dental chairs and tools, a front desk, X-rays and a restroom. The AxessPointe advanced dental team can provide the full scope of dentistry via the mobile clinic, which has the ability to visit schools and nursing homes. “I talked to the CEO, Hey, we need to reach them. They can’t reach us,” Kapoor says.
Since March, mobile clinic providers have seen over 33 patients on fourth Friday Dental Days outside the under-construction I Promise HealthQuarters, scheduled to open in July. The HealthQuarters is set to offer medical, optometry, pharmacy, lab and general and advanced dental services from AxessPointe and behavioral health resources from Coleman Health Services to I Promise students, their families and community members — making health care accessible to all under one roof. During a recent Dental Day, Kapoor told an inquiring police sergeant that it’s open to anyone. The sergeant — whose friend had recently lost her husband, job and insurance — called it a godsend.
“You could see the relief on his face because he was lost — how to help before that,” she recalls. “There might be so many that we can get to. They don’t even know they don’t have to keep suffering.”
Kapoor is on a mission to spread the word about the importance of oral health to overall health. She cites a sinusitis patient whose dental checkup revealed an infected upper molar was contributing to her symptoms. Once it was taken care of, the sinusitis was resolved.
“Primary health starts from oral health,” she says. “Patients need to know that oral health is equally as important as your medical exams.”
