By Cheril Lee
Omaha, NE – The UNMC College of Dentistry and the Omaha Tribe of Nebraska have signed an affiliation agreement that expands dental care services on the reservation. Dr. Kim McFarland is with UNMC's College of Dentistry.
She says the additional services are funded through two grants from the Health Resources Services Administration, a division of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. McFarland says there are huge unmet needs for the children on the reservation. She says they have a lot of dental disease and many of them have never seen a dentist.
"There are eight pediatric dental residents on the Macy Indian reservation in Northeast Nebraska. They're providing dental services for the head start population primarily, but also other small children in the community. And I think they are going to begin to implement some tele-dentistry services in the future as well."
Dr. McFarland says it is important to take a child to the dentist as soon as they have their first teeth, somewhere between 6 months and 1 year.