Socorro High School senior Lailana Little was a bit nervous about working alongside dental professionals to offer free dental services to hundreds of community members.
Fortunately, Little's experience in the school's Health Professions Academy (HPA) gave her the confidence she needed to perform basic skills, such as portable dental x-rays.
“It’s pretty easy (to do),” Little said after she finished with a client. “It’s just about knowing your position and making sure you align (the sensor) properly. We learned in class how to do x-rays properly, and the clinic I go to, they use this device, so that’s how I was trained to use it.”
Little was one of six students in HPA's dental assistant course who assisted the El Paso District Dental Society and the Texas Mission of Mercy organization at a free two-day dental clinic at the high school. The clinic provided dental treatment and education to 800 borderland residents on April 12 and 13.
Texas Mission of Mercy is a mobile dental clinic that travels around the state providing free basic dental care to Texans with limited resources and/or access to care.
Barbara Wright, a Career and Technical Education health science teacher, said that the dental clinic offered dental assistant students real-world experiences while enabling them to make a positive impact on the community.
The dental assistant course provides students with the knowledge, skills, and hands-on training with clinical partners to become certified dental assistants and be ready to work after high school.
“They’re working with the doctors and doing infection control and taking x-rays,” Wright said, referring to the students who volunteered at the dental clinic. “It's very exciting for my students to get real-life experience.”
Dental assisting students also helped with data entry, vitals registration and documenting patient information. Additionally, students in the culinary arts and emergency medical services technician courses at Socorro High School volunteered at the event.
Dr. Krystelle Anaya, Southwest senior director for the Texas Dental Association and the Texas Mission of Mercy El Paso dental chair, graduated from Socorro High School in 2003. Anaya, a dentist for 12 years, played a key role in bringing the clinic to the high school and providing essential services to the community’s residents.
“I wanted to bring it here to this area and to showcase this amazing area where I grew up,” Anaya said. “Also, since it's a little more rural, there's less access in this area. So, it was nice to be able to offer (services in) proximity to these patients.”
Anaya said the clinic also provided an excellent opportunity for students to explore careers in dentistry, especially since they were working with dental professionals.
"It also helps students to mature, I think, because they're put into situations where they have to interact with adults, they have to problem solve, they have to do different things or a skill set that they may not have in another environment," Anaya said. "So, I think that these kinds of programs are fantastic for the students."
Senior Ximena Segovia cleaned and sterilized the equipment after each patient. Segovia said volunteering at the clinic offered her valuable insight into what her career as a dentist might be. Although she has gained hands-on experience working with patients during her externships, she was nervous at first about working with so many people at the dental clinic.
“It was a little bit nerve wracking, especially since this is our first big event helping the community,” said Segovia, who plans to attend Doña Ana Community College and then transfer to a dental college. “But at the same time, it was exciting, and it feels really rewarding.”