Amanda Wilde (Host): Dental health profoundly affects a person's overall health. To keep your mouth healthy, UAMS provides dental care and training in state-of-the-art facilities. On this episode, we'll Spotlight UAMS Delta Dental of Arkansas Foundation Oral Health Clinic with general practice dentist, Dr. Ashley McMillan.

Welcome to UAMS Health Talk, a podcast from University of Arkansas for Medical Services. I'm Amanda Wilde. Dr. McMillan, welcome. Thank you so much for your time today.

Dr Ashley McMillan: Hi. Thank you so much for having me.

Host: Let's just start with regular cleanings, because that's what we always hear about, our basic to dental health. Can you talk about the importance of regular cleanings?

Dr Ashley McMillan: Absolutely. So, most people feel like they know their hygienist more than they know their dentist, which is a good thing, because that means they're coming in every six months to get those cleanings. But the reason they're important is not just because, "Oh, I've got some buildup on my teeth or some plaque," or "I want them to check me for cavities." those are all great things, but people don't realize that oral health is related to systemic health. So, we see lots of increases in cardiovascular disease, diabetes, low birth weight babies. A lot of things are correlated with poor oral health and inflammation.

And so just like Inflammation has been kind of a hot topic for the past 10-15 years, inflammation in the body, anytime our gums are irritated, anytime there's plaque and debris in our mouth, it's going to increase our systemic inflammation actually, not just the inflammation in the mouth. So, a simple cleaning, it can absolutely improve your overall health throughout the body.

Host: Let's talk about the UAMS Oral Health Clinic and in terms of what services does the clinic offer. I assume it offers the regular cleanings we were just discussing.

Dr Ashley McMillan: It sure does. People don't realize we have a full service dental clinic here that is much similar to a private practice that you would go to in the community. We have three full time hygienists. We have three faculty dentists and we are accredited for up to eight dental residents. So, at any given point, there can be 11 dentists and three hygienists running around, which is a huge crew of dental team members.

Because of that, we're able to support a lot of services. We do root canals, extractions, implants, fillings, crowns and bridges, dentures, partials. We've recently partnered with Invisalign and started offering clear aligner therapy, mostly in the adult population.

Host: That's to straighten your teeth?

Dr Ashley McMillan: Yes, absolutely. So, we, in the past two years, have increased our offerings in terms of clear aligner therapy, night guards, snore and sleeping appliances, tooth whitening. There's really nothing we don't do here in terms of services provided. So, it's a very comprehensive care location for sure.

Host: I love that it's there for everything you need. I like when a service is just all in one place so that if I have to progress to the next level, it's the same general practice.

Dr Ashley McMillan: And we do have some niche procedures. In dentistry, when you graduate dental school, you're actually equipped to go ahead and practice in the community. There's not a requirement to do residency like there is in the medical community. So when people go out and do residencies, there are niche specialties that we do refer to sometimes, but we like to consider ourselves an all-inclusive clinic, and most specifically, we're taking care of medically complex patients. That's sort of the patient population we specialize in.

Host: Now, how long has the UAMS Oral Health Clinic been open?

Dr Ashley McMillan: So, it opened January of 2013. We celebrated our 10-year anniversary last summer with a big celebration. And as part of that 10-year anniversary, we had an expansion, and we increased the number of operatories we have. We added some conference room space for the educational program. It's a beautiful state-of-the-art facility with top-notch equipment, digital technology. It's incredible the growth that we've experienced in 10 years.

Host: I like not only is everything connected in one place, but like you said, state-of-the-art. So, I know everything is up-to-date. Does the clinic see children as well as adults?

Dr Ashley McMillan: So, we do see children. I will say we partner with Arkansas Children's Hospital in training and in clinics. And so, a lot of the pediatric patient population will go to Children's. And also, because Arkansas insurance, takes good care of the pediatric population. And that's great because it takes such good care of the pediatric population. A lot of kids do tend to go to pediatric specialty practices because most of the state-supported insurances pay for that specialty care the same as they would for coming to us. So, we do see children. But I would say that that is the-- pardon the pun-- that is the smallest population group that we would see. We tend to focus on the adult population.

Host: And what type of patients are seen in general?

Dr Ashley McMillan: Right. So, that's my favorite part of my job, and what makes the residency so important. We see the healthiest of all people to the sickest of all people. So, we see people from the community that would go to a private practice and just like to be here. They may be patients of other UAMS departments and they would like for all of their stuff to be in one location.

And then, a huge portion of our population is kidney transplant, liver transplant patients, head and neck radiation, chemo, people that are on medicine for osteoporosis that therefore affects their bone health in their jaw and their teeth, cardiovascular patients, joint replacement patients. We see a ton of patients that need to have their mouth and optimal health to make sure the rest of their body is able to take care of these other illnesses that they're fighting. So, the variety is tremendous.

Host: Yeah, the whole entire range. I'll give some information about how to make an appointment. Is there anything we should know when we make an appointment? What to bring?

Dr Ashley McMillan: Anybody from the community can come get their services at UAMS. We have a great website on the UAMS health website. So if you just go to UAMS Health and search for the dental clinic, you will find a website page that has all of our services that we offer. It has a link to make an appointment, so that you can actually send an email request for the appointment. And of course, it has our phone number so you can call and talk to our front office. They're going to want things, just basic demographic information. And if you have any insurance information, we'll be able to help you out. We'll want to know about that at the time.

But the biggest thing that's very cool about our clinic is that because we're a residency program, we offer a 25% reduced fee schedule. So, we see a lot of uninsured patients that couldn't afford private practice dentistry and the fees that are associated with that. And they know that they're coming to be a part of resident training. And, like I said, our residents are fully licensed dentists. They're just here because they want an extra year of hospital-based dentistry and to be able to learn how to take care of the sickest populations that there are. So, that's a great thing for people to know when they schedule, is that there is an option to see residents at a 25% reduced fee.

Host: It sounds like the residency program is one of the big features and an important part of UAMS Oral Health Clinic. Can you talk about the training that is provided for the next generation of dental professionals?

Dr Ashley McMillan: Yes. So, it's a big problem in Arkansas right now because we have such a rural state and so many of the baby boomer practitioners are retiring, and there's simply not enough providers spread out throughout the state to take care of all the needs. We don't have a dental school in Arkansas yet. There's talks of one in development. But because we don't have one yet, our program and there's program in Northwest Arkansas, are the only forms of. graduate dental education in the state. And there's the only form of undergraduate, anything, any sort of dental education, it's just through these two programs.

So, what we train these residents to do is take care of anyone and everyone so that if they practiced in a rural area of Arkansas, a patient wouldn't have to drive three hours to our program to get the dental care they needed because they're about to go through head and neck radiation for cancer of some sort. So, our goal is to increase the standard of care in the dentists that we graduate out and make sure that they go throughout Arkansas to practice so that we can help the people of Arkansas have better access to this care.

Host: Yeah. Your focus is on your population in your area, which is a rural population. Dr. McMillan, thank you so much for this rundown and guide to the mission and services at UAMS Delta Dental of Arkansas Foundation Oral Health Clinic.

Dr Ashley McMillan: You're so welcome. Thank you guys for having me. This was wonderful.

Host: That was general practice dentist, Dr. Ashley McMillan. For more information or to make an appointment, call 501-526-7619. And if you found this podcast helpful, please share it on your social channels and check out the full podcast library for additional topics of interest. This is UAMS Health Talk from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.