Special Report

CARE WITH DIGNITY / ON THE COVER

CR1TEMON z

rer

Dr. Mark Luria

and dental

assistant

Danielle Frisch

of Rockwood

work on a

patient.

One Smile At A Time

Volunteers bring no-cost care to Detroit's
low-income, uninsured Jewish dental patients.

L

Shelli Liebman Dorfman

Senior Writer

Ike many dental patients, Susan
Siegel of Oak Park describes her
dentist's office as a place where she
receives "friendly, excellent, very profes-
sional, efficient care!' But the difference,
Siegel says, is that "I am a patient at the
Jewish Dental Clinic, where I don't pay for
visits — but I'm treated like I do!'
Siegel, who is divorced, works two jobs
and has no dental insurance, has been a
patient at the Southfield-based clinic since
Sept. 2009, shortly after it opened.

"I never had insurance for dental care,
but the bills used to be affordable she
said. "Now that they're not, if it weren't for
the clinic, I would not be able to take care
of my dental needs. And here they don't
make me feel like I'm low income. I feel
welcomed!'
That's what the Jewish Dental Clinic,
a project of the Alpha Omega Dental
Fraternity, was founded to do. Each month,
70-90 low-income Jewish patients without
dental insurance receive care at no charge
from members of a mostly Jewish core of
volunteers that includes 80 dentists and
specialists and 50 hygienists and assistants.

The clinic is a continuation of an idea
that surfaced about seven years ago when
a local attorney floated an idea to start a
free Jewish dental clinic, said endodontist
Dr. Mickey Zuroff of Southfield. The two,
along with a group of dental professionals,
did some research and met with Norman
Keane, executive director of Jewish Family
Service of Metropolitan Detroit, and
Rachel Yoskowitz, director of JFS' Health
and Healing Initiatives and a senior staff
member at the Jewish Federation of
Metropolitan Detroit.
Through them they learned about plans
for Project Chessed, an access network

that now connects medically uninsured
adults in the Jewish community to donat-
ed health care resources, including more
than 500 physicians, prescription coverage
and 15 hospitals.
The group also learned that Project
Chessed — directed by Yoskowitz and
supported by the Detroit Jewish com-
munity's Jewish Fund, Sinai Guild, private
philanthropy and foundations — would
include a component for dental care. So
the dental clinic idea was put on hold "to
assure there was a coordinated effort to

One Smile on page 16

October 7 • 2010

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