FAIRBANKS, Alaska — The caregivers at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Community and Technical College dental hygiene school are looking for a few good mouths.
The 3-year-old program at CTC's Barnette Street campus is inviting community members to come in for basic dental work. In exchange for a steeply discounted rate, patients allow the students at the campus to get some real-world experience in CTC's dental office.
"Everyone is different," said Desiree Lee, one of six dental hygiene students scheduled to graduate this spring. "Everyone has a different mouth."
Allowing students to get experience by providing a cut-rate service isn't unprecedented at CTC. The culinary arts program just relaunched its Borealis Bistro, which offers a fine-dining lunch menu on Fridays for $10. The CTC cosmetology pilot program offers discounted haircuts and stylings to help students practice their future trade.
Vaughan Hoefler, a retired Fairbanks dentist who leads the CTC Dental Hygiene program, said experience is particularly valuable for his students. They're trained to do gum and dental evaluations, deliver anesthesia and offer cleanings, among other duties.
The two-year associate's degree program, which was launched in 2007, is about to produce its second batch of graduates. There's a shortage of hygienists in Alaska, and Hoefler said the students will likely find quick work when they leave.
The students have a full semester to practice their craft on models and learn from textbooks. But when they peek into an actual mouth, the real learning begins.
"You can only go so far in a simulation lab," Hoefler said. "At some point you have to work on a real person."
Bill Bridgman, the pastor at Fairhill Community Church of God, sat in a CTC exam room on Tuesday while a nearby dental hygiene student went to work. He brought a 5-year-old girl in to the state-of-the-art clinic for what was probably her first dental exam and said he was impressed at the opportunity it offered for both patients and aspiring dental hygienists.
"When you have a university that does high-quality training, we need to take as much opportunity as we can to help those students," he said.
There was also another undeniable attraction — the price is right. The girl doesn't have dental coverage, and he said the CTC program is an affordable option for a comprehensive exam.
"I appreciate that," he said. "Everyone has been really helpful."
The examinations can take as long as 3 1/2 hours, since they require a medical history, an exam by a dental hygiene student and a double-check by a dentist. CTC doesn't take insurance, and appointments are required.
But the process does come with a big benefit. Hoefler figures the services offered by the program are priced at roughly one-third to one-quarter the cost of a commercial dentist's office. For patients without dental insurance, those savings add up quickly.
Hoefler said the students are understandably tentative when they first begin peering into the mouths of strangers. But by now, when they're nearing the end of their second year, he said there's not much difference between the students and hygienists at work in commercial dental offices.
"I've been very impressed by the skill level and commitment of our students here," Hoefler said. "Most of our students at this point almost don't need to be checked."
Information from: Fairbanks Daily News-Miner, http://www.newsminer.com