Dental Center wide open for students, faculty

UCF has a new dental clinic open to students, faculty and staff.

The Dental Center is the newest addition to the UCF Health Center and Joseph Chasko is the facility's dentist.

Chasko worked for a dental practice in the Orlando area before signing on as UCF's first dentist. He previously owned his own practice in Fort Lauderdale.

Chasko said the combination of streamline dental equipment makes the facility state-of-the-art.

"We have these intra-oral cameras that display inside the patient's mouth on a flatscreen TV hanging above the chair," Chasko said. "They can take pictures inside the patient's mouth and are saved as X-rays."

The clinic stores X-rays and patient records electronically to stay better organized and to reduce waste.

The facility is also cutting energy and water consumption by using advanced equipment.

"We have a vacuum that's used for suction, which doesn't use any water, and a compressor that doesn't use any oil to operate, unlike many other compressors," Chasko said.

A graduate student studying counselor education visited the Dental Center for a pre-existing condition the first week of the semester. He was a patient in the office and requested to not be named.

"I noticed that the clinic has some upgraded technology," he said. "Everyone was very cordial and it was easy to come here. I just have to pay out of pocket."

"We just need to convince students it's the biggest bang for their dental care dollar," said Robert Wirag, director of UCF Health Services.

He said that they have tried to make prices competitive with the community's.

"It will be less expensive to get their oral care needs getting taken care of here than either investing the time and money to go home to their hometown dentist or try and find a local dentist," Wirag said.

The Dental Center accepts Aetna Student Dental Health PPO insurance plan, along with most PPO (preferred provider organization) and indemnity dental insurance plans.

Wirag said the Dental Center is considered an auxiliary operation, so no tax or state money is used to run it.

"It must support itself based on the services that they provided, so the revenue that is generated from all the activity in the dental center is to cover all salaries and operations," he said.

It will not affect the student health fee and there will be no additional cost involved to support the clinic.

"The fee was a part of overall UCF Health Services," Wirag said. "Five hundred thousand dollars was used to build out and furnish the space. Now it's up to the staff there to figure out how to run the spaces there, and from the fees that they generate from the services they provide."

Wirag said that CITF funds are student monies and that money accumulates every year.

"After several years, there is a significant amount of money there to be used for a specific purpose," Wirag said.

Jeff Surmin, a senior radio/television major, wasn't aware that there was a dental clinic on campus.

"I haven't really maintained dental visits while in college, but I might look into it," Surmin said. "It would be a lot more convenient."

There is still a lot of work to do to get the word out to the faculty and staff  about the center, as well, Surmin said.

"It's an evolutionary sort of thing," he said. "We have a lot of promotion to do to market the availability of services offered. This is brand new for our campus community."

The Dental Center purchased some advertisement time and space at the UCF Arena to help market the dental center.

A sign offering people a chance to win discounts at the Dental Center will run on one of the ad tickers during timeouts or halftime, Wirag said.

The Dental Center is on the second floor of the Health Center and is exclusive to students, faculty and staff.

Urgent dental care, root canals, oral cancer screenings, as well as crown, denture and bridge placement are a few of the services offered. The clinic is open Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m.

The Dental Center has four chairs within the facility and seven employees at the office.

"Since the first two weeks we were open, about 85 percent of patients have been students," Chasko said.

Cavities are common among college students just becoming independent, but Chasko noted that he often sees another problem for students.

"Patients are coming with wisdom teeth that need to be removed and have no knowledge from their previous dentist about the problem," he said.

The Dental Center doesn't perform wisdom teeth removal.

"I end up having to refer them to another dentist for the procedure," Chasko said.
Educating students is also a part of Dental Center promotions.

"We want them to walk out knowing a little more about oral health than when they walked in," Wirag said. "The program has an education mission, as well as a clinical service mission."

The Dental Center staff is expected to increase as the demand for dental clinic services increases, according to Wirag.

"We'll hire another dentist, another dental assistant or two, and we'd be able to fully utilize the space that is currently available," he said.

For the past several years, the 1700-square foot space where the Dental Center was originally proposed to be has been the storage site of medical records.  Due to the the cost overruns of building the Health Center, the Dental Center had to be sacrificed at the time it was first proposed until there was enough money available.