Gala aids Dental Angel

For five years, Shannon Chubb lived with toothaches so bad that she went to the emergency room for relief. But with no insurance, she couldn’t get the teeth pulled and any help for pain was always temporary.

Then she heard about Dental Angel.

“I got seven teeth removed,” she said. “And the best part is they didn’t make me feel bad for having a whole mouth full of bad teeth.”

The 37-year-old mother of three is one of hundreds of low-income residents treated through Dr. Elenora Woods’ Dental Angel Foundation.

To help support its efforts, proceeds from an event Friday will be given to Angel Foundation.

At the Dental and Medical Total Health Convention, scheduled Friday at The Chattanoogan, Assistant Surgeon General Clare Helminiak is the scheduled speaker. After the convention, a gala is scheduled from 5 to 11 p.m. with proceeds going to the Dental Angel Foundation. Admission to the gala is $50.

The nonprofit statewide organization is made up of a network of dentists — 11 locally and about 100 throughout the state — who agree to treat low-income patients who may not have the money to pay for their service. The dentists are paid through the foundation, Woods said.

She started the foundation in 2007 after a local 12-year-old boy died from a dental infection that spread to his brain.

“We don’t do crowns, bridges, dentures or partials,” Woods said. “We remove life-threatening dental infection. Our priority is to get people out of pain and to prevent death.”

At Friday’s convention, Woods is bringing doctors and dentists together to discuss how dental problems affect a person’s overall health. Other speakers will discuss the importance of knowing a patient’s blood pressure before doing dental procedures, pediatric dentistry and advance technology in root canal treatments.

Woods also will address the audience and discuss the importance of teaching children to care for their teeth when they are young to prevent life-threatening dental problems later.

Katrina Benton, a 43-year-old Chattanooga resident, said the Dental Angel Foundation saved her life.

“I was in such severe pain that I didn’t know I was in the world half of the time,” said Benton. “I just prayed to God to help get me through this.”

Benton had four teeth infected so badly she was in a hospital for four days. Doctors at the hospital would only treat the infection, giving her pain medication and antibiotics, but refusing to pull the infected teeth, Benton said.

In most cases, hospitals only manage dental pain because they are not set up to do dental extractions, Woods said.

Benton’s tongue swelled and she wasn’t able to eat much until an Angel Foundation dentist pulled the teeth, she said.

“It’s a life-saving foundation,” she said.