On Thursday, Feb. 18, a crowd of well wishers filled the new Marshfield Clinic Medford Dental Center.  On an almost spring like February day, sunshine filled the spacious new clinic.  On hand to celebrate the completion of the clinic were proud new staff, many people from the local community, and Marshfield Clinic staff who worked hard to open this clinic.  They include Dr. Karl Ulrich, CEO, Terri Kleutsch, Dental Administrator for Marshfield dental sites, Greg Nycz, the visionary director of Family Health Center of Marshfield, Dr. Ronald Hager, Oral Surgeon,  Dr. Jeff Luke, Dental Director and Dr. Kowshik Vaddi, the first dentist working at the Medford clinic.  The clinic opened Dec. 1 and has already seen over 400 patients.

Terri Kleutsch thanked Cong. Dave Obey, State Sen. Russ Decker, State Rep. Mary Williams, and reps of Sen. Russ Feingold and Sen. Herb Kohl for their efforts on behalf of the clinic.

The clinic will be fully staffed soon with 5 dentists – and we are proud that our placement program recruited 2 of those dentists.  The Medford clinic welcomes all patients regardless of insurance .  It will make a major impact on improving access to dental care for people in north central Wisconsin.

Dr. Vaddi, Dr. Hager, Dr. Luke

Clinic staff

State of the art equipment in well designed operatories

Dr. Vaddi with wheel chair lift to permit more comfortable treatment for patients

Clinic main entry

Dave Obey addresses the crowd

Russ Decker addresses the crowd

A healthy reception - no soda served!

Conference room

Staff paging system for efficiency

A new decade can herald fresh beginnings and new starts, but this decade has begun instead with enormous tragedy in Haiti and ongoing problems in the US.

Here in Wisconsin, a new study released by the WDA announces and predicts a continuing shortage of dentists treating low income patients.  The study was funded by Delta Dental of Wisconsin and conducted by U. of Conn. researchers.  It puts the number of dentists in the state at 3,142, with a quarter of them treating people on Medicaid.

Our Dentist Placement Program is part of many attempts to improve this situation, since we seek to find dentists for the federally qualified community health center dental clinics that treat everyone, regardless of insurance or income.    We are currently working to fill openings around the state.  Some are very rural spots, but others are in metropolitan areas.  We urge  dentists who want to provide quality care with professional support staff in fine facilities to contact us for details.  We especially want to hear from dentists with five years experience. My email is siik@wisc.edu.   So this year we won’t say Happy New Decade, but ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’, which is a good Midwest idea.  May your decade improve quickly!

Kenosha – a visit to celebrate the first anniversary of the new building housing the Kenosha Community Health Center Dental Clinic….and to visit the eight dentists that our program recruited for the clinic!  Here is a photo of 7 of  the very talented group – the new face of public health dentistry today!  And here are photos of the impressive clinic.  The administrators worked hard to create a warm and welcoming atmosphere with jewel tones on the walls and lots of art.  The clinic is a  busy, beautiful new center of  pride in the city of Kenosha!

New dentists at Kenosha CHC - our placements!

Kenosha CHC celebration of the new dental clinic

Clinic CEO Jack Waters addresses the crowd

Clinic board members

Happy staff!

Tom Petri of WHPCA with the Kenosha dental director

Andrew Maples, DMD, Marsha Siik, Tom Jazweicki, DDS

Minneapolis – a visit to the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry to participate in their annual Student Dental Society vendor fair – a time to tell 4th year students about immediate openings in Wisconsin that need their skills, and a time to educate the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd years about the interview process, when to start looking, the state and federal loan programs.  We spoke with many students – and are always energized by them!

Milwaukee – next week brings a visit to Marquette School of Dentistry for their annual  Student Dental Society vendor fair!  Looking forward to talking with the students about opportunities all over the state of Wisconsin.

It’s been a busy summer!  We’ve wrapped up the 2008-2009 recruiting year and are happy to announce that we achieved 19 dentist placements in the state of Wisconsin for the year.  We found dentists for the communities of Kenosha, Ashland, Cashton, Superior, Neillsville, and Madison.  Here are photos of Scenic Bluffs CHC in Cashton – a great, thriving, busy clinic that serves the Amish community as well as 3 counties surrounding Cashton.

We’re proud to help bring more dentists to work in areas of the state that need more dentists.  And since the problem of access to dental care is so great we will keep moving forward!

Dentists – email Marsha Siik at siik@wisc.edu for information about openings in the state, in both rural and urban areas.

Clinic managers and practice owners – email Marsha Siik at siik@wisc.edu for help with finding an associate for your practice.

Amish residents near Cashton

Downtown Cashton

The Dentist Placement Program is in the Wisconsin Office of Rural Heath, which is part of the UW School of Medicine and Public Health.  We have several programs that focus on rural, including WARM -The Wisconsin Academy for Rural Medicine.

WARM is dedicated to improving the supply of physicians in rural Wisconsin and improving the health of rural Wisconsin communities.  WARM holds an annual forum each summer to introduce the new WARM students.  It is always inspiring to meet them and learn about their interests in rural health.  For more information on WARM contact Alison Klein, at UW School of Medicine and Public Health. alklein2@wisc.edu.

We offer sincere congratulations to graduating dentists this year  -  you have worked hard and we are grateful that many of you are choosing to bring your skills to the Community Health Centers in Wisconsin.  This year we have worked with 2009 graduates from Marquette, Minnesota, Iowa, and the new dental school in Arizona.  It’s been fun to work with you through this process, as you choose your first professional position.  4 new grads are starting work at the new CHC in Neillsville that opens in August, and 7 are joining the expanded CHC in Kenosha.  Our program’s placements for the academic year number 19 at this date.

On a personal note, my daughter, Cara, graduated from Columbia U with an MFA, so here are some photos of her with a proud mom.  Again congrats to all 2009 grads!

May 11 was a day of celebration in Neillsville, WI!  Ground was broken for a much needed new dental clinic that will see patients regardless of insurance coverage.   Here are photos of the celebration.  The clinic, part of the Family Health Center of Marshfield, will be open to patients on or near August 3rd.

Groundbreaking celebration tent

The crane is ready

Greg Nycz, Terry Kleutsch, city and state officials break ground!

April showers have finally brought May flowers to Wisconsin after a very very rainy month.  As May begins, most graduating dentists have focused their job searches, completed their site visits, signed contracts and are looking forward to graduation and a short break before starting their new careers.

This year we worked with Marshfield Clinic to place four dentists who will start at the new community health center dental clinic in Neillsville when it opens in late August.   Two are 09 graduates from Marquette and two are 09 graduates of U. of Minnesota.  This clinic is yet another step towards filling the gap in dental coverage in north central Wisconsin.

We also worked with Kenosha Community Health Center, Inc., to find seven dentists for their newly remodeled and expanded clinic in Kenosha.  The dentists are very impressed with the new facility and what it offers the community in terms of additional service.  Six of the dentists are new Marquette grads.

In the west of the state, a University of Iowa dentistry grad is getting ready to start work at Scenic Bluffs Community Health Center in Cashton.  To the north, a Marquette dentistry grad is planning to move north to work at Lake Superior Community Health Center at their Superior site.

Pasque flowers signal spring's arrival - finally!

Reba Rice, Ex Dir and Tina Dahlke, DDS at The Lakes CHC Dental Center in Ashland, WI

Lake Superior Community Health Center

Route 13 along Lake Superior

Lake Superior in Bayfield County

Reba Rice, Dir, Tina Dahlke, DDS at The Lakes CHC dental center

Dental staff at lunch

Remodeling crew was busy!

New equipment

First of 4 future operatories

Lake Superior Community Health Center in Superior, WI

Though spring is officially here, our Wisconsin weather is a mix of snow and rain, with snow drops and crocuses bravely trying to bloom through the snow! It was raining, but there were patches of snow in the woods when I drove from Superior to Ashland last week to visit two Community Health Centers.  My first rainy stop was in Superior at Lake Superior Community Health Center where I had a quick tour and meeting with Dr. Eric Elmquist.  The clinic was busy with all areas filled with patients.

Next stop was the new clinic in Ashland, which is the dental site for the Lakes Community Health Center in Iron River.  The dental clinic on Main Street in Ashland is a very welcome addition to the area – many partners in Bayfield County worked to open the clinic quickly.  Remodeling is still underway but the staff is energized, and the clinic is open and seeing patients. Tina Dahlke, DDS, moved from rural Alaska to be the start-up dentist, and the staff was recruited from Ashland, Eau Claire, and Minnesota. Tina is originally from Wisconsin, and was happy to return, especially to a location near Lake Superior. Reba Rice is Executive Director of both clinic locations in Iron River and Ashland. Here are some rainy photos of my trip!

We’ve also learned of 2 more placements for our program, both at the Kenosha CHC, making 12 placements for this fiscal year.  Dentists continue to contact us about clinic openings, both 2009 grads and in-practice dentists seeking part time work.

Though spring is still weeks away, we are cheered to learn that we have recruited 10 more dentists to work at community health centers in Wisconsin.  Our non profit program, at WORH, works to find dentists for the clinics in Wisconsin who take all patients, regardless of health insurance.  The 10 dentists are joining clinics in  Ashland, Cashton, Kenosha, Madison, and Neillsville.  Four are joining the new Neillsville clinic which opens this summer.  Two of the dentists will graduate from the University of Minnesota program this spring, while four of them will be new grads of Wisconsin’s own Marquette program.  The others are grads of dental schools in Iowa, Illinois, Boston, and New York.   We have now recruited 41 dentists since the start of our new program; however, the need is so great that we currently have full time openings at 10 clinics.  Dentists may contact us at siik@wisc.edu for information!