Meet the Needs of New Jersey Families
By Beth Salamon
Newark, NJ — The Dental Department Newark Beth Israel Medical Center (NBIMC), which has been around for more than 75 years and is the largest hospital-based dental program in New Jersey. Annually, about 16,000 patients are treated in the outpatient facility, including many families whose children receive general dentistry and preventative care in an ultra-modern dental facility.
“Newark Beth Israel Medical Center offers one of the most valuable programs in the country, helping thousands of the people in New Jersey,” says Abraham M. Speiser, DDS, GPR Residency Director, and Chief of Dental Services.
The Dental Program and Clinic provides competent, safe care for patients requiring a variety of services, including general dentistry, inpatient, outpatient, emergency and consultative services. The program combines state-of-the-art technology with general and specialty services such as endodontics, periodontics, orthodontics, prosthodontics, oral surgery, oral pathology, pediatric dentistry, dental care for the medically compromised and operating room general anesthesia dentistry for the handicapped and disabled.
Preventative dentistry and oral hygiene care are integral to the dental services performed. All ages are served, including neonates and geriatric patients. Through the Department’s association with Newark Beth Israel Medical Center, patients have access to all the advanced technology, resources and research available.
The dental residents are supervised by attending dentists in inpatient consultations, two-thirds of which interface with cardiac surgery, oncology, organ transplants and psychiatry. With 55 active attending dentists, twelve dental residents and more than one dozen additional dental personnel, the Department offers its patients total dental health and emergency dental care.
Therapy includes diagnostics, preventative, restorative, endodontics, peridontics, removable prosthodontics, fixed prosthodontics, oral & maxillofacial surgery and orthodontics.
A Brighter Smile for Young Patients
One of the most important groups treated by the Program and Clinic are children. Poor dental health in children can lead to a lifetime of disease, and can affect every aspect of a child’s development. Untreated dental disease, resulting in low-level chronic pain, can impede a child’s learning and daily functioning.
Approximately 3,000 three- and four-year olds in every Head Start program in Newark have received dental screening and care through a valuable program provided by the Department of Dentistry at NBIMC. The preschoolers receive a dental exam, fluoride treatment, and quality toothbrush (sometimes their first). Parents are informed about exam results and encouraged to send children for dental treatment. The screenings sometimes reveal more serious physical and social problems, allowing for early intervention. The program is funded by The HealthCare Foundation of New Jersey and Delta Dental Foundation.
The Program and Clinic also participate in the annual Give Kids a Smile (GKAS) National Children’s Dental Access Day held each February. The screening is part of a national initiative sponsored by the American Dental Association to provide free oral health education, screening and treatment services to children 12 and under from low-income families across the country. The focus is on the epidemic of untreated oral disease among disadvantaged children.
The Dental Clinic accepts most insurances including Medicaid Managed Care, and New Jersey Family Care (Medicaid),
For more information or an appointment, please call (973) 926-7338.
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Contact: Beth Salamon
973-322-4926