Students unable to access proper dentistry are given access once every semester to Sequoia’s mobile dental clinic. This semester the clinic  was stationed in Carrington Hall and offered services over the days of Jan. 16-18. 

This program was brought to Sequoia last school year after teachers reached out to Andrez Guevara, the Health and Safety Project Manager for Sequoia Union High School District.

 “Some of the teachers reached out when I was newer to my position and stated that they noticed that a lot of students needed dental work done since they’re coming from different countries. A lot of different countries don’t have the same kind of access to vision and hearing and dental work.” Guevara said.

Doctor Geoffrey Peña is a dentist who works part-time with the mobile dentist program.  Peña talks about how the system has worked from his experience. 

“We usually treat children whose parents are on Medi-Cal, who don’t have access to the dentist or who are very busy with their time,” Peña said.

This mobile clinic does not have access to all of the same tools as a physical dental office would have. They can do the majority of things but are unable to do more complicated work.

“We provide a cleaning, simple fillings, or if they need to get a baby tooth out or something like that. We’ll do what [they’d be]  doing in a normal office, just not the more expensive complicated cases,”  Peña said.

The dentistry system at Sequoia High School is a way of letting students with Medi-Cal have access to standard dentistry.

 “A lot of the students that we worked with had never seen a dentist before. So I think it’s been great and it was much needed, it’s been a very fulfilling experience,” Peña said.