Ballam was in the middle of receiving a cleaning from hygienist Natalie Mulak. That didn’t stop the Sydney resident from voicing his approval of the national Gift from the Heart program that allowed him to receive free dental care.
“The hygienist here is doing a fabulous job on me and I don’t want to leave the chair,” Ballam said as everyone around him burst into laughter.
About 40 local residents were all smiling a little wider on Saturday after receiving free dental care as part of the national program that sponsored more than 100 free clinics across Canada.
“The turnout has been very well,” said Mulak. “We filled our clinic this year mostly from our wait list from last year so that will tell you how much demand there is in the Sydney area. We’re grateful to our volunteers and all the organizers — it’s been a great experience.”
Mulak was one of about 10 Cape Breton dental hygienists, two dentists and a host of other volunteers who participated in the local clinic that was held at the Cape Breton Business College on Saturday from 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Wanda Fedora, one of the organizers, says it’s part of a national effort to improve oral health care in Canada.
“This event has been going on for about 10 years,” said Fedora. “It started with a dental hygienist in Ottawa who was a private practitioner and she decided to open her clinic up for Valentines to provide free care and so she called it a Gift from the Heart because it was around Valentine’s Day.”
The event expanded and is now held nationally and not in February because of weather concerns. It’s now held in April, Oral Health Month, on the first Saturday of National Dental Hygienists Week. It’s the third such event for the local area and there’s never been a problem getting people to participate, both as volunteers or participants.
“We were overwhelmed by the number of phone calls we got,” said Fedora, recalling when the event was first being organized three years ago and they went to local media outlets to promote it. “We had over 200 phone calls and only 40 to 50 spots.”
This year, they’re taking the overflow of clients from the Under One Umbrella program, which held a free clinic held in November. And there will be two more upcoming opportunities for people requiring dental care to get help.
“The Under One Umbrella is having another day, April 29, so they’re going to be here once again providing dental care and some dental hygiene and the Mayflower Mall Dental Group — they have five locations — on the 22, 23 of April, they’re working with the United Way to provide free care to people in the five clinics.
“So there’s a lot of need.”
Last year, nationally, more than 800 patients took part in the one-day event.
