Patient gives back to those who help keep smiles healthy

A volunteer team of UBC dentistry students, professors and consulting dentists work in the Eastside Emergency Dental Clinic in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.

The clinic is run through the Vancouver Native Health Society and provides free dental care for impoverished DTES. Larry Rossoff, a UBC dentistry professor, said the clinic has its challenges but the staff and students find working with the less fortunate rewarding.

“We’re dealing with a patient population that has often neglected their teeth,” he said. It’s rewarding when a person leaves the clinic pain-free, he said.