{"id":1314196,"date":"2019-09-01T21:24:00","date_gmt":"2019-09-02T03:24:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.postindependent.com\/free-dental-clinic-coming-to-glenwood\/"},"modified":"2019-09-01T21:24:00","modified_gmt":"2019-09-02T03:24:00","slug":"free-dental-clinic-coming-to-glenwood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/local-news\/free-dental-clinic-coming-to-glenwood\/","title":{"rendered":"Free dental clinic coming to Glenwood"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
Hundreds of dentist provide free dental care at Colorado Mission of Mercy’s Greeley clinic in 2018.<\/strong>
Provided<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

Glenwood Springs High School will temporarily become a dental clinic the first weekend in October as part of a massive effort to provide free care to those who need it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a no-questions asked clinic,\u201d said Pam Dinkfelt, executive director of Colorado Mission of Mercy, or COMOM. \u201cWe want to help individuals who are in dental need.\u201d<\/p>\n

COMOM has been setting up free dental clinics for 12 years, but this is their first venture onto the Western Slope.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we heard about the magnitude of this event, we were really excited to try and get it to the Western Slope,\u201d said Sherrie Setterberg, the local organizer of the clinic.<\/p>\n

Sherrie and Jim Setterberg run a dental clinic in Glenwood Springs, and have done a number of free dental clinics at their practice in which they have seen the need for dental care.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is great dental need in our valley, and there\u2019s great disparity of people being able to get dental care,\u201d Setterberg said.<\/p>\n

The clinic\u2019s doors will open at 6 a.m. Friday and Saturday, Oct. 4 and 5. School is not in session that Friday for Roaring Fork Schools, allowing the clinic can take over the entire ground floor of GSHS.<\/p>\n

The crews will set up 125 dental chairs, and hope to treat 1,300 patients over the two days.<\/p>\n

Each patient will be asked to arrive in the morning. While all are welcome, the clinic will close its doors once it reaches capacity.<\/p>\n

The patient will go through a dental health \u201ctriage\u201d first, where a volunteer will go over medical history, allergies and other needs. They will then get to see a dentist<\/p>\n

There is a wide range of services that the dentists will offer, but some may be limited due to time constraints.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do fillings, we do extractions, we do cleanings. On a limited basis we do crowns, flippers, which are the front teeth, and dentures, as time permits. Those take time to do, and we can only do so many,\u201d Dinkfelt said.<\/p>\n

Getting to Glenwood<\/p>\n

After 12 years setting up clinics along the Front Range, including Brighton, Loveland, Colorado Springs, and as far south as Alamosa, COMOM wanted to do something on the Western Slope.<\/p>\n

Glenwood Springs was a good option because of the access to Interstate 70 and relative closeness to specialists around Denver.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to go west, but not too far west because we wanted to have access to the dentists on the Front Range,\u201d Dinkfelt said.<\/p>\n

Garfield County provided $5,000 to COMOM\u2019s clinic and area businesses also donated to the effort. From Vail to Aspen to Grand Junction, people are stepping up, Setterberg said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOverwhelmingly, people are doing what Glenwood does best. They are volunteering their time, services, and food. It\u2019s what we know happens in Glenwood, but it\u2019s pretty cool when you see it happen,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Call for volunteers<\/p>\n

\u201cWe expect about 1,000 volunteers, and every one of these volunteers are doing it to help. It\u2019s just a good thing to do,\u201d Dinkfelt said.<\/p>\n

The clinic needs dentists, but the program also depends on a host of nonmedical expertise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a litany of nonclinical jobs that individuals can work at,\u201d Dinkfelt said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe would love it if people could register next week,\u201d in order to have everything in place well before the clinic, Setterberg said.<\/p>\n

Those interested in volunteering can learn more at comom.org\/volunteer or by calling 720-648-0918.<\/p>\n

tphippen@postindependent.com<\/a><\/p>\n

via:: Post Independent<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hundreds of dentist provide free dental care at Colorado Mission of Mercy’s Greeley clinic in 2018.Provided Glenwood Springs High School will temporarily become a dental clinic the first weekend in October as part of a massive effort to provide free care to those who need it. \u201cIt\u2019s a no-questions asked clinic,\u201d said Pam Dinkfelt, executive […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[160],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1314196","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-26 21:00:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSKE Ski Country","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1314196"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1314196\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1314196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1314196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kske\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1314196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}