Homegrown dentist gives back to Fayetteville students

FAYETTEVILLE -- Dr. Jenna Waselues found a career to help people, alleviate pain and make them feel better about themselves, she said.

She grew up in Fayetteville, graduating in 2005 from Fayetteville High School with a desire to go into the medical field. Waselues went on to the University of Arkansas, where she was a Razorback cheerleader and majored in kinesiology and chemistry. Her college dentist helped her decide to become a dentist.

She left for a few years to attend dental school in Missouri, graduated in May and returned to Fayetteville. She now works as a dentist with Lance Osborne Dentistry.

Through Osborne, she learned of the Fayetteville Youth Dental Program and decided to volunteer. She likes helping children have access to needed dental care and supporting students with an interest in dental health, she said.

"I've always wanted to come back here and serve my community," she said. "This is home."

The Fayetteville Youth Dental Program, established more than 50 years ago, began as a joint effort of the Altrusa Club of Fayetteville, Fayetteville School District and local dentists, said Glenda Lee, a dental assistant who serves as the program director.

The program has changed through the years and now is supported with a grant from the Delta Dental of Arkansas Foundation, Lee said. The program is connected with a Northwest Arkansas Community College dental assisting program, a dental assisting program for high school students through Northwest Technical Institute and five volunteer dentists, including Waselues, who work with patients on Fridays at the clinic, Lee said. The clinics are offered from September through May. About a dozen patients are treated at each clinic.

Other dentists do specialty work in their offices. The program partners with the Altrusa Club on special projects.

The program is housed inside the Agee-Lierly Life Preparation Services, or ALLPS Campus, at 2350 Old Farmington Road, Lee said. The program is named for retired educators Martha Agree and Carmen Lierly.

Students eligible for services are from low-income families and are referred by nurses, principals or teachers, Lee said. Students often are identified during health fairs and health screenings.

Dr. Henry Matthews moved to Fayetteville 29 years ago to work for the late Dr. Ernest Stanbury, who was one of the founding dentists with Dr. Jim Hunt and the late the Dr. Jacob Agee, the husband of Martha Agee. Stanbury required Matthews to volunteer, a service Matthews continues to support, he said. He is the advisory board president for the program.

"A lot of young kids had really bad dental health and were coming to school sick with abscesses," Matthews said. "It kind of evolved into what we have today. Not only are we providing care for the indigent children, we're teaching young students."

The program needs more dentists to volunteer, he said.

"It's such a tangible way to give back to the community," Matthews said.

Lee, a Fayetteville High School graduate in the class of 1981, was in the dental assisting program as a high school student, she said. She worked as a dental assistant for different offices. She has directed the dental program for almost 20 years.

"There are a large number of people in Northwest Arkansas who have been part of the program," Lee said. "They use this as a starting point."

Waselues did not know about the program in high school, she said. Since becoming a volunteer dentist, she has participated in three Friday clinics and has conducted dental screenings.

"She's a great ambassador on what you can do," Lee said. "You can go out and get the education and come back to your community and be involved."

Waselues's interest in taking care of people developed through some personal experiences, including an injury she experienced when she was 9, she said. She was injured one January day while sledding. She hit her sister's sled and broke her two front teeth, which were in the shape of half moons, she said.

She remembers telling her mother, "I knocked out all my permanents."

Her mother called a family dentist, who agreed to meet them at his office despite some icy roads, she said. She remembers the dentist asking her questions and making sure she didn't have any other injuries.

"He really took his time to take care of me," said Waselues, who now has two veneers on her front teeth.

She remembers shadowing Matthews for two days during an eighth-grade career exploration class. In ninth grade, Waselues needed dental surgery to remove a couple of baby teeth and pull down her permanent teeth.

"I wasn't the most attractive ninth-grader," she said. "Afterward, my smile looked good. That can do a lot, especially for a kid if you're making your smile better."

She initially thought of going into physical therapy. But her dentist while she was in college, Dr. Rebecca Lucke, asked about her interests and was compassionate and empathetic with patients. Lucke inspired Waselues to choose dentistry and became a mentor.

"I've always been an advocate of making people feel better about themselves -- if it's pain, self-confidence or being educated on oral health or health in general," Waselues said.

When she applied to dental school, Waselues wrote about her interest in being involved in a program providing dental care for children who couldn't afford it, she said. Friday clinics with the Fayetteville Youth Dental Program give her a chance to do that.

When she works with children who are patients, Waselues tries to put them at ease. She tells them the tapping on their teeth is like someone dancing. She uses funny names for dental tools, such as calling suction tool "Mr. Thirsty."

"I try to be very positive with them and make them feel good about it," she said.

NW News on 12/28/2015