Alabama: Opelika dentists treat dialysis patients pro bono

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Alabama: Opelika dentists treat dialysis patients pro bono

By: KRISTEN LETSINGER | Opelika-Auburn News
Published: December 03, 2011

For some, a visit to the dentist’s office is often an unpleasant experience.

But for dozens of local dialysis patients, Dr. Crawford Tatum Jr. and his brother, Dr. Tim Tatum, are life savers.

The brothers, whose dental practice is located on Avenue A in Opelika, have been treating some of the East Alabama Medical Center’s dialysis patients pro bono for the past year.

“It’s a blessing,” EAMC’s Dr. Thomas Carter said. “…They’re keeping people alive. They’re making a difference in people’s lives. It’s amazing.”

Carter, nephrology specialist at the medical center, said his dialysis patients often can’t afford proper dental care, which is essential for those who are hoping to receive kidney transplants.

He said dialysis patients often have some degree of immune system suppression and tend to easily get infections. In addition, the medications patients receive following a kidney transplant often suppress a patient’s immune system.

Patients who have poor dental care can get infections in their teeth and jaws that could cause other medical problems, Carter said.

“They can’t get dental care,” Carter said. “Most of our patients are poor. They’re minorities, and a lot of the patients never got dental care when they started dialysis.”

Crawford Tatum estimated the brothers have done approximately $80,000 worth of pro bono dental work on dialysis patients this year. That work includes a basic examination and cleaning, along with X-rays and teeth extraction, among other procedures.

“They ask us to try to help those patients out that seem to not have the resources to provide (for) some dental care,” he said. “So what we’ve done is just try to remove infection and deal with inflammatory diseases in the mouth.”

Crawford Tatum said it is because of the practice’s regular patients that they have been able to do so much pro bono work for the dialysis patients.

“Our family through the generations has always tried to do what (we) could to help people when they need a helping hand,” he said.

The Tatums began to partner with Carter and his patients a year and a half ago when, while at a charity dinner, Carter asked if they would consider doing some work on the dialysis patients.

Carter estimates he has sent anywhere from 40 to 60 patients to the Tatums during the past year.

Crawford Tatum said he hopes the practice will be able to continue treating the patients in the future.

“This is a hard time on a lot of folks, for a lot of reasons, and you don’t want to not help people that need help,” he said.

http://www2.oanow.com/news/2011/dec/03/opelika-dentists-treat-dialysis-patients-pro-bono-ar-2795369/