There’s an affordable, on-campus option for SAIT students needing dental services.
Located in the Senator Burns building, the SAIT Dental Clinic provides services including, x-rays, polish and fluoride as well as sealants. Insurance isn’t needed and SAIT students can get their dental needs done for a $5 fee.
It’s $25 for public patients and $50 for a family.
“We need you, we need you as patients”, said Chelse Dueley, an instructor in the radiography program. “We need you to come in and support our students.”
To be a patient at the clinic, a person has “had to have their teeth cleaned within the last year because students don’t do scaling, students only do a polishing fluoride,” said Amanda Yee, an ed tech at the clinic.
However, “there is a supervising hygienist who would do one to one-and-a-half units, roughly, of scaling as a courtesy for that patient,” Yee added.
If patients require a deep cleaning, or it’s been two or three years since they’ve had their teeth cleaned, they will not be considered a candidate for the clinic.
“Because it is a preventative clinic, patients have had to have their dental scaling done in a dental office within the last year, because this is also a program,” said Dueley.
Patients get a USB with their $5 purchase that they take with them to the office, according to Yee,
Appointments for X-rays are at set times, 9 a.m., 11 a.m., 2 p.m. and 4 p.m., and those appointments are two hours long.
Cleaning appointments are three hours long and these times run a bit longer than usual as students in the program are learning and practising under the supervision of licensed dental health care professionals.
Those looking to get services from the clinic, must not have had previous X-rays within the last year, said Yee.
The preventive appointment includes polishing and fluoride as well as oral hygiene instruction. At the end of the appointment, patients will receive a soft toothbrush, and floss and will be given customized oral hygiene care instructions for that patient.
The clinic will finish operations for the year on Dec. 12, then students will next be able to access the clinic from Jan. 23, 2024 until the end of April 2024.
The program also brings in dentists who work with students in the clinic and they can perform assessment exams on patients’ needs.
Patients can make an appointment by calling the dental clinic at (403) 284-8666 or by dropping in and booking an appointment in-person.
The clinic is located in the Senator Burns building, in the fourth floor of the NR East wing.
“I’ve enjoyed it a lot, it’s a lot of work but I feel like the payout will be fun,” said Zoya Pervez, a student in the program.
“We get to know everybody, we have to get comfortable with everybody, patients need to trust us, and if they can’t trust us, nothing can move forward.”
For many the dentist may be something scary but students and the staff at the clinic work hard to do put patients at ease.
“It’s a bit scary to come to a dental clinic during school, but it’s $5 to get a cleaning, and our X-ray,” said Pervez. “You’re supporting students, the dental program and we get to practise, it’s a fun environment.”
