By Kristen StrobbeThe muffled sound of a hand-drill hitting the gums and the soft hum of a buffer vibrating against enamel fills a sterile office on a February morning, where Dr. Esther Lopez is on duty.
These are the common sounds of an everyday dentist’s office. Except this wasn’t just another dentist’s office, and the patients are not your average clean-teeth seekers.
In fact, the doctor running the show is far from a veteran of the dental profession.
Dr. Lopez is director of the dental clinic at Goldie’s Place, a support center committed to helping homeless people find employment and creating healthy smiles that they say can make all the difference.“Having a good smile is like putting your best foot forward,” said Lopez, of Goldie’s Place, at 5705 North Lincoln Ave. “People who need that support can find it at Goldie’s Place.”
On a Saturday morning in the middle of February, Lopez is helping to do just that for people who otherwise wouldn’t have the opportunity.
While working on her doctorate in dentistry and master’s degree in public health at the University of Illinois-Chicago (UIC), Lopez, who graduated in May, was approached by her mentor and associate dean for Prevention and Public Health Sciences, Dr. Caswell Evans, to help start a student-run dental clinic.
“Esther was excited from the beginning,” said Evans, 65, a practicing public health dentist for over 35 years.
So, in 2007, Lopez and fellow student, Chernara Baker held town hall meetings to gauge the interest of dental students in starting a clinic that is staffed and managed by students. The response was overwhelming.
"When we saw how many students wanted to sharpen their skills and use their public health background, we immediately began to do research,” Lopez recalled.
Lopez said the biggest challenge she faced was the lack of dental clinics like the one created at Goldie’s Place. Lopez had little to base her research simply because there are very few public dental clinics.
"There are medical clinics out there, numerous ones,” Lopez said. “But dental clinics are rare because they require more than just one-on-one consultation; they require procedures and extensive equipment for nearly every visit.”
In October, just five months after graduating from dental school, Lopez was named director of the dental clinic. She spends about 15 hours a week working on the clinic from Goldie’s Place’s Lincoln Square location. That doesn’t include the Saturday sessions she spends with students and patients.
The student-run clinic is still in its pilot program. There have been five student sessions since Lopez was named director.
The birth of inspiration
Raised in Stone Park, Ill., Lopez did her undergraduate work at DePaul University before attending UIC for dentistry and public health. She initially wanted to pursue a medical degree, but says she changed her mind after seeing the lack of options available for people needing affordable dental care.
“From early on, I knew my passion was public health,” Lopez said. “I just didn’t know in what capacity.”
When Lopez was 11, her mother was diagnosed with leukemia and she subsequently lost her father to cardiovascular disease while in dentistry school.
“When my parents were ill, I had to interpret,” Lopez said. “Seeing them struggle with finding care and finding the funds to pay for that care was traumatizing.”
Lopez calls her experience caring for her ill parents as inspiration for working in public health and helping to “eliminate medical care disparity.”
Her passion for helping others is what Dr. Evans said is key in her role as a public health leader.
“She [Esther] is young, but she has fresh ideas to bring to the table,” Evans said. “There’s not just a concern for dental health there, but a concern for medical and dental care to be a right, not a privilege.”
As Lopez smilingly greets the student dentists and patients huddled into the workspace, one might never guess that she’s new to being a dentist, new to being a clinic director and new to being a mom.
Lopez is mom to five-month-old Nathaniel.
Nathaniel’s presence at the dental clinic is not an uncommon sight. Neither is Lopez’s brother-in-law, Christian Lopez, an undergraduate student at Harold Washington College.
“Christian has been helping me out since we started the pilot program,” Lopez said. Sometimes he is helping out by talking to the clinic’s Spanish-speaking patients and at other times is “helping take care of Nathaniel while he’s here,” Lopez said.
Christian Lopez said he’s grown accustomed to what Lopez calls her “wackiness” for helping others.
“I think she’s [Esther] been helping people and volunteering since I met her,” he added. “Not just at Goldie’s Place, but everywhere.”
Standing nearby, Lopez blushed, adding that she’s been known to rope people into helping with the clinic and doing community service.
“It’s about doing something for those that are less fortunate— and that can range from doing dental work to donating food to a family,” she said.
A calling
Sometimes it’s easy to forget that the patients she’s treating are homeless because none fit the Hollywood” stereotype of homelessness, Lopez said. Some do suffer from mental illness, she said, but that doesn’t change the fact that they are all there to receive oral health care.
"Most the time people just want you to listen to them and it’s important that we be patient with our patients,” Lopez said. “Sometimes we have to think out of the box and see how we can help the patients when they – and us – don’t have the money.”
Johanna Dalton, 62, executive director of Goldie’s Place, cited Lopez’s poise under pressure as one of the reasons behind asking her to step up as clinical director.
“She’s so eloquent in all circumstances, whether she’s with a patient or at a fundraising event trying to raise money for the clinic,” Dalton said.
Dalton said that only most of the money, around 65 percent, for the clinic and other services offered at Goldie’s Place come from fundraising, grants, donations and corporate sponsorship.
“There has never been a moment when Esther has said ‘we can’t afford this,’” Dalton said.
“When she sees that a patient may need a procedure that we can’t do, she finds a way to get it done and finds funding for it.”
Lopez said it can take months and even a year to get the money needed to help a patient with a specific problem.
Dr. William Bjork, 53, the founding dentist at Goldie’s Place, was instrumental in getting UIC students involved in the clinic. After practicing dentistry for 15 years, Bjork decided to follow through on his dream to practice dentistry without profit. He opened Goldie’s Place’s clinic in 1997. And Dr. Lopez has become a key to their success.
“She’s [Esther] helping make a difference in a way that I haven’t seen before – at least in dentistry,” Bjork said.
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