The Pearl River Community College in Hattiesburg has been running small notices in the paper that for $25.00, student dental hygienist are available for appointments at the college. After reading that heart disease and posssibly Alzheimer's is caused by bad teeth and gum disease, I thought I'd better get checked out. I made an appointment--it took a month to get in, but my day arrived yesterday.

So I get there for the 1pm appointment and was pleasantly surprised. They have a new facility on the campus for health and allied services. It was easy to get in, not too much walking, nice people in reception. As a new client, it meant filling out about five pages of paperwork, nothing onerous.
I was taken into the student lab part, with dental chairs and equipment in cubicles. It was open and bright with large windows. I was assigned a superb dental hygienist student named Miss Key. I am ashamed to say the last time I had my teeth cleaned, and apologized to her before hand. She was wonderful, and did the most thorough exam I have ever received. She went over the forms I had filled out line by line, asked about my medical history, asked about medications in depth, examined my skull, neck and throat, did an oral exam, and had the doctor come over to examine her progress every step of the way.

Finally, it was after three pm before she started picking, hacking off and scraping off the plaque on my teeth. It was like scraping barnacles off a ship's hull. She worked and worked, being mindful to be gentle around my front crowns. Then she polished my teeth and applied flouride. It was 4:30pm before it was all over.
I gave her a $20.00 tip for the excellent service. I wrote a letter to the editor today praising her and the facility. A long--but positive experience.

susil