- Tallahassee State College's dental program was bolstered by over $1 million in new equipment this fall thanks to the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund.
- It provided 30 new dental simulators that train students for several real-life situations in the field.
- Watch now to find out how you can get preventative dental work done for free at TSC.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
Providing essential services at a cheap rate today, while training tomorrow's dental professionals.
I'm Alberto Camargo your College Town neighborhood reporter.
Tallahassee State College rolled out its new dental lab this semester — and its providing easy-to-afford dental care to all neighbors.
TSC has had a dental program for close to 50 years.
Now — over $1 million through the Florida Job Growth Grant Fund bought modern dental simulation technology like this.
Program chair Lorinda Scott says it replicates as many real-life situations as it can for the current cohort of 65 students, "so when they are entering the workforce they have a solid foundation of scenarios and experiences provided here to help get them on their way and be successful in their careers in dentistry."
But they don't practice on just mannequins.
Students apply what they learned here to real patients at the TSC dental clinic.
Patients like TSC student Natasha Azpurua-Askowitz.
"I have a chipped tooth and I just want to know what's going on with it."
Natasha says she heard of the clinic through word of mouth — and she's got an appointment set up for Thursday.
"This saved me because I have this cracked tooth and I was like what do I do? I don't know a dentist in Tallahassee, I don't know if I have dental insurance."
Health policy research group KFF says the average price for preventative care like teeth cleaning and x-rays is over one hundred dollars without insurance.
At TSC, all neighbors can come in to get work done.
And the regular price is no more than $15.
"Ultimately, they do save a lot of money, we have all the services here for them to get their teeth cleaned, to get their radiographs, x-rays, so they can get these things done affordably."
In fact, all services at the dental clinic are being offered for free until the end of the semester.
The clinic is by appointment only.
At TSC, Alberto Camargo, ABC27.
