Bend Orthodontist Develops Volunteer Program

January 14, 2010 -- Have you ever met someone with an idea that might actually change the world? I have.

 

Maybe the best way to begin is to picture this. Imagine you’re 13, shy, afraid to smile. Your friends are getting braces. Your family simply cannot afford them. Or maybe they can, but not without difficulty. Or maybe you want to pitch in by helping pay for the braces yourself.

 

Then you find out that you can help by volunteering for a worthy non-profit cause in your community. How?

 

For each hour of volunteer work, the orthodontist deducts $10 off the patient’s bill. In fact, patients can cover up to half of their dental bill with this simple $10 per hour approach.

 

That, in a nutshell, is the real life outcome of the brainstorm of Dr. Juliana Panchura, a Bend orthodontist who put this idea into action in September 2008.

 

By word of mouth and her Web site Dr. Panchura’s program called Smile! Central Oregon promotes community involvement and helps patients pay for dental services. It also multiplies Dr. Panchura’s volunteer impact on the community and teaches important lessons to patients.

 

This is especially true for young people, she said. “They get to learn and do a job they have not done before. That gives them confidence in their learning abilities without the threat of being fired and failure.”

 

Not only that, said Dr. Panchura. The experience puts young people in touch with people of all ages and walks of life, linking them with an endeavor that helps others, and arms them with resume-building experiences for future jobs and college.

 

When Dr. Panchera shared this program with her local dental society, a few other dentists decided to integrate this program into their practice. When their patients needed general dental work prior to having braces, they were able to reduce their bill by 50 percent by  doing volunteer work in their community.  

 

There is not a means test to participate in this program, and the patient and their family decide which non-profit organization to help. The web site –www.smilecentraloregon.com -- includes detailed information on how the program works and how the volunteer hours are reported. 

 

Dr. Panchura reports that as of January 2010 over 3,500 hours of volunteer time has been donated to Deschutes County non-profit organizations by 67 patients and their families. 

 

Dr. Panchera comes from a family of orthodontists. Her father, her uncle, her husband and step-daughter are all orthodontists. She earned her undergraduate degree from Denison University in art and chemistry, a dental degree from the University of Pittsburgh, and a master’s degree in orthodontics and public health from UCLA.

 

She has taught at UCLA Dental School, and is frequently a featured speaker at national and international professional meetings. Since moving to Bend in 1989 she continues to travel to Los Angeles each month to treat patients with cleft palate and cranial-facial deformities at the non-profit Eisner Pediatric and Family Medical Center in Los Angeles County.

 

 

Barry Rice was the executive director of the Oregon Dental Association from 1979 to 1999. He was director of dental professional relations for ODS Companies from 1999 to 2004 and chief executive officer and chief operating officer for Advantage Dental Plan, a dental care organization serving central and eastern Oregon from 2004 until 2008. He is currently president of Barry Rice and Associates, Inc., a professional practice consulting firm headquartered in Portland, and can be reached at briceassoc@gmail.com