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Community dental care

Putting Sparkle in Dental Care

Renee is grounded in God’s love — and lives that love through her daily work in community dental care

Renee

Renee Kohnen’s daily work puts her up-close-and-personal with hundreds of bicuspids and incisors. A “detail person,” she “gets a great deal of satisfaction out of removing calculus,” she laughs, considering the hard residue she has patiently chipped away at over 29 years. “I like the before and after — going from lots of tartar and inflammation to a mouth full of clean teeth.”

But for this Davenport dental hygienist, her vocation is not simply about polishing teeth to a sparkle and explaining one more time why flossing is so important. She “comes in close contact with an intimate portion of a person’s body” each day, she says. Patients grow to trust her, and in turn, she listens compassionately.

Renee is a dental hygienist with Community Health Care, a medical and dental home for Quad-City people who may not be able to access primary health care elsewhere in the community. She’s proud to be associated with this non-profit organization that now serves some 24,000 yearly in five Iowa-Illinois locations. The clinics provide affordable care for children and adults on a sliding fee scale.

In 1978, when Renee first went to work at Community Health Care, she was drawn to this “non-traditional” expression of her dental profession. “I have a personality to do adventurous things, and I like the aspect of helping people who otherwise wouldn’t be getting help.”

In those days, the dental clinic occupied a floor of the Bicentennial Building near the Scott County Courthouse. Community Health Care, launched by a group of concerned citizens, was in its third year of operation then. Two dentists and one hygienist managed the patient load.

Now on a June day, the dental clinic is buzzing with activity. A handsome new $2.7 million project has renovated two rundown facilities at 2nd and Ripley: the Per Mar and Salvation Army Thrift Store buildings.

The waiting room is full of kids and adults. A shared wall between the two buildings has been removed, connecting 21 “opertories” or dental treatment stations that are equipped for first-rate care. Computers for patient charting have just been installed in every opertory. New digital equipment has eliminated the old film x-rays, sending images instead directly to computers. The learning curve is a bit steep these days.

Renee dedicates herself to the good consistent care of her patients, many of whom have not developed the habit of good oral care. She follows the dentist’s treatment plan, taking x-rays, cleaning teeth, explaining preventive care, and putting patients on a recall program.

Yes, she’s an advocate of floss. She’s the one who repeats over and over again the health benefits of sliding that strand between your teeth.

“I get a lot of satisfaction helping children and educating the parents. They’re the role models for oral hygiene,” she says, hoping kids will grow up with a healthy mindset. She sees far too much decay caused by less-than-healthy diets, smoking, and lack of care. Infection in a mouth can affect the entire body’s well-being.

Community Health Care is a place where “anyone can come, and they pay based on income,” she says. Renee is an active listener, sensing how to approach each patient. Some are homebound by illness or poverty, and “I may be one of the few people they get to talk to in a day.”

In appointment after appointment, she enthusiastically encourages people to “be more involved in their oral care.” Sometimes the work can be discouraging. “I had a four-year-old boy who didn’t like ‘that thing’ in his mouth. I was trying to polish his teeth and he didn’t like the suction. I let out a big sigh. And he asked, ‘Are you tired?’”

But then she learns that a patient has given up smoking, or another is flossing more frequently now. Her consistent care has potential to bring about change.

How does Renee sustain her energy over 29 chair-side years? Her faith has a lot to do with it. Prayer has the power to shift her priorities and release her troubles to God. “That takes a lot of weight off,” she says.

Renee was introduced to God’s love in her earliest days at St. John’s Lutheran Church, a faith community in tiny Dundee in northeast Iowa. The generous example of her mother Ellan Kline has profoundly shaped Renee’s notion of faith and compassion.

When Renee and Jeff Kohnen married 11 years ago, the two wanted to anchor their marriage in a church. “You know, when I was a teenager, I thought I was ‘there’ when it came to religion. But as I get older, I apply my faith more. I ask more questions.”

Here at St. Paul, in worship and in Alpha, Renee has found a faith community that reminds her she’s “not alone in the world.” She has met generous, welcoming people who struggle with the “same problems and concerns, who get distracted when they pray too.”

And much like St. Paul strives to be a congregation that welcomes all people, Renee’s workplace “opens its doors each morning to people, knowing that they will be helped.” That’s care much broader and deeper than flossing and brushing.

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"Let us not be satisfied with just giving money. Money is not enough, money can be got, but they need your hearts to love them. So, spread your love everywhere you go." ~Mother Teresa