Chelsea School Dental Center re-opens after eight-month closure due to pandemic restrictions
On a recent Tuesday at Williams Middle School in Chelsea, Massachusetts, two Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM) faculty members were tucked away in a room with green-blue cabinets and a bulletin board covered in posters and flyers, hard at work in the Chelsea School Dental Center.
A young patient reclined on the chair in the center of the room while Dr. Martin Ugarte-Chavez carefully examined the patient’s mouth. Dr. Lina Benslimane sat nearby, jotting down notes into a file. Ugarte-Chavez and Benslimane are both center faculty members in the Department of Global & Population Health and clinical instructors of Health Policy & Health Services Research at GSDM.
This used to be a typical scene at Williams Middle School – but then the COVID-19 pandemic required the clinic to close for eight months. In February 2021, the Chelsea School Dental Center was able finally to reopen.
The dental center, which provides basic restorations, prevention, and oral health education to students within the Chelsea Public School system, is staffed by five GSDM providers and five dental assistants. Before the pandemic, providers at the dental center saw students five days a week after school, treating approximately 500 to 600 patients a year.
“Regardless of insurance, we see everyone who is living in the city of Chelsea and is enrolled in the Chelsea Public Schools,” Benslimane said.
When the pandemic struck in March 2020, the schools in Chelsea shut down—and so the dental center was forced to close. Chelsea was one of the hardest-hit communities in the state: At one point, the city had the highest COVID-19 infection rate in Massachusetts.
Benslimane said that the Chelsea School Dental Center fills an important hole in the community – which was left gaping open during the eight-month closure.
“There is no dental health center for kids,” Benslimane said. “All are private offices—and there are a lot of people who are in need. They don’t have insurance. Regardless of insurance, we’re seeing everybody, and it’s important for the kids to get oral healthcare.”
By January 2021, with approval in hand and protocols in place, GSDM’s Department of Global & Population Health was ready to start providing care. Then a construction mishap shut off power in the first floor of the school and a winter snowstorm further delayed the dental center’s re-opening. By February 2021, however, the dental center was operational.
Due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the dental center has had to make some operational changes, according to Benslimane. While the dental center used to run five days a week, they’re now down to four, as the school is closed on Friday for sanitizing purposes. They have also reduced their patient load from seven or eight patients a day to four.
“There’s much more paperwork and much more screening over the phone,” Benslimane said. “[We’re] asking really detailed questions, and when they come we take their temperature and ask another screening.” The providers, like other clinicians, also now wear N95 masks.
Despite the changes, Benslimane said that she and the other providers are happy to be back.
“This is what my life is,” Benslimane said. “To work with patients—mouth to teeth.”