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Fighting the war in Vietnam, being deployed to armed conflict in Bosnia and training in Fort McClellan as a woman medic in the first integrated unit are just a handful of stories shared by patients who arrived at Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine (SIU SDM) Veterans Dental Care Day. On Thursday, Nov. 13, 112 third and fourth-year dental students, supervised by faculty, provided free comprehensive dental care for 92 veterans. The total value of the care: $49,779.00.

Randolph Rogers, who served four years as a Navy torpedoman, is a returning customer. “I found out last year when I went to the Alton farmers’ market. They had a flyer, and so I responded to the flyer.”

Rogers discovered Veterans Dental Care Day having just retired from a career with the U.S. Postal Service. “I did 36 years there,” said Rogers. “So I have served this country for 40 years.”

“Many of these veterans don't have a dental home and go for long periods of time without dental care since the overwhelming majority of them do not quality for dental services through the VA,” said organizer Katie Kosten, DMD, Clinical Assistant Professor and Director of Community Dentistry. “Some people think that we're strictly an emergency clinic, but we provide comprehensive care—everything from cleanings all the way to implant placement, root canals, orthodontics, fillings, everything in between.” 

Free wellness checks, health screenings, vaccines and flu shots were also available in the We Care Clinic mobile health unit parked right outside.

Vietnam Vet Bob Myers drove the two-hour trip from Sullivan which, for him, made the most financial sense.  
 
“I'm 80% disabled. Oh, but to be 100% that's the only way you can get free dental. So, I've got a deal in right now to try to get the 100%,” said Myers. “I don't know if I'll get it or not. I had the opportunity to come down here, so I took it.” 
 
Myers was drafted by the U.S. Army at 17 years old and ended up in Vietnam after some stateside training. He retired two years ago from a 43-year career working on a pipeline where he started working right after a year in combat in Vietnam. While there, he lost a cousin whose Navy boat was hit by a rocket.  
 
“I grew up in Casey, Ill., and when I came back, of course, back in those days, there was no parade, no nothing. You just hopped on a plane, and you showed up home. And of course, I went to work right after I got back,” remembered Myers. 
 
“I come from a long line of veterans--a long line that goes back to World War Two. And my daughter was in the Navy. My Daddy, he didn't want me to join,” said Linda Tucker. This is the fourth year Tucker, mother of Telisha Reinhardt, SIUE Assistant Director of Military and Veteran Services, has attended Veterans Dental Care Day. She joined the military as a medic in 1979 when an all-female unit first integrated with men for basic training in Fort McClellan in Alabama. 
 
“We trained a lot with the Rangers and the Green Berets, and every time they went out for training in the field, they had to have a medical team. And we were always in the field with them,” said Tucker. “It was always hard. We were trained to be in war even though we weren’t actually in war. And they graded us for speed and accuracy--how to treat the soldier that's wounded, and how fast do we get this person burning in the helicopter back to the medical unit. The training was very intense.”

Of the number of students who are also military who treated veterans that day was D3 student Emily Bone. Bone is a member of the U.S. Air Force and attends SIU SDM on full scholarship thanks to the Health Professions Scholarship Program. She will work as a dentist on base, upon graduation.

“It's been really nice to get to be a full-time student right now and getting to be a part of the greater Air Force community later on in life,” said Bone. “The scholarship gives me the opportunity to be able to serve and do what I've always wanted to do, just be a dentist. Both of my grandpas actually served in the Vietnam War, so there’s a history with people serving in my family.” 

Ikenya Margrum drove an hour and a half for a dental cleaning. He left home at 19 to serve six years in the U.S. Army in both infantry and intelligence, with service in Bosnia during the war.

“My town is probably 1100 people. So, you go from straight out of high school to training, and all of a sudden you see different things, you know. Leave it at that. You see things that you aren't really prepared to see,” said Margrum. “And that's the one thing. I'm always grateful for my infantry training, because I think without that going in as a soldier—not taking anything away from them—I just know that infantry training prepared me for the things that I saw.”

Margrum also feels his military training prepared him for his current profession as a special education teacher.

“Now I have so much patience,” said Margrum. “I always say dealing with some of the things I had to deal with in the military is what makes the things I deal with in special education like we'll be okay in an hour, because that's how it is. One minute a kid could love you, and the next minute they could be going through something, and you're their worst person. So, I was prepared.”

Veterans Dental Care Day is in its eighth year and every year, SIU SDM faculty and staff are assured that the life experiences shared by these patients will impact students for years to come.

"From the time that the veterans arrive in the clinic in the waiting room, we get to just observe them talking to each other, telling old stories, and just the camaraderie that's there,” said Kosten. 

“Several of our students are planning to go into the service after their dental education is complete, so this is a special experience for them. Students always report back to me that this is a really rewarding day, and they very much appreciate getting to speak one on one with these service members and having the opportunity to show gratitude for everything they've done."

 
PHOTOS:  Randolph Rogers, U.S. Navy with SIU SDM student practitioners (left to right) Claire Chalkey and Karla Burgess; Bob Myers, U.S. Army; SIU SDM student practitioners and U.S. Air Force servicemembers Emily Bone and Katie Thiel; Ikenya Margrum, U.S. Army; Veterans and SIU SDM faculty Jeffrey Banker, DDS, MS, David Pierson, DMD, Randall Duncan, DDS, MS