TSU Dental Hygiene Department providing free, discounted services to faculty and staff

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (TSU News Service) – Tennessee State University’s Department of Dental Hygiene is providing free and discounted services to faculty and staff.

The department is seeking individuals 60 years of age and older to receive health screenings and dental exams from its students. In particular, the department is looking for patients with special needs, such as high blood pressure, diabetes and asthma.

Coordinator Rosalyn Word said patients who want to participate have until March 31 to sign up, and treatments will continue throughout the semester.

Word says the department is seeking people with special needs because it wants students to understand how to treat such individuals.

“When they go out into the private sector, they can better manage and understand the treatment that’s required for these patients,” she says.

The first 10 patients will receive free treatment, and those after that will receive a 50 percent discount, says Word.

Dental hygiene student Ramziya Haji says the hands-on experience is beneficial, particularly in the case of older patients.

“An older adult is one of the comps that we have to complete before we graduate,” says Haji, who will be graduating in May. “So it gives us a different kind of patient to work with, and how we can help them.”

Demetra Scruggs, a clinical dental hygiene supervisor, says the special treatments being offered this month is also another opportunity to showcase what’s happening in the Dental Hygiene Department.

“A lot of faculty members are not aware of what we offer here in Dental Hygiene,’ says Scruggs.

TSU’s Dental Hygiene Clinic provides service to nearly 600 patients a year, including students as well as the Nashville community.

To learn more about Department of Dental Hygiene, visit http://www.tnstate.edu/dentalhygiene/.

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