A collaboration between the University of Illinois Cancer Center, UI Health and its Mile Square Health Center (MSHC), and the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) College of Dentistry to offer free oral cancer screenings resulted in 147 people being screened at locations around Chicago. April is Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Month.
No appointment or insurance was required for the screenings, which were held throughout the week of April 14. MSHC, a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) with a network of clinics, hosted free screenings at its Back of the Yards and Auburn Gresham neighborhood clinics. Other screening sites were the UI Health Specialty Care Building and the College of Dentistry on the UIC campus.
Cancer Center Community Engagement and Health Equity team members helped sign up people for the screenings, as well as assisted them in scheduling any needed follow-up appointments.
At the MSHC Auburn Gresham clinic, Dental Director Sodabeh (Sue) Etminan, DMD, MPH, performed the screenings. MSHC offers general dentistry care for the whole family, and the clinic works closely with other UI Health providers to provide oral health services their patients may need.
Mann Patel heard about the free oral cancer screenings while sitting with his friend, a scheduled dental patient at the clinic. During his screening, he said he decided to be screened because he had not seen a medical doctor or dentist in more than six years.
Lashaundra Johnson, Dental Unit Coordinator at Auburn Gresham, took it upon herself to check around the building the clinic shares to look for more people interested in free screening.
She discovered a group of women participating in a sewing class and a few came to the clinic, including Daisy Jordan. Although she had recently been to the dentist, she didn’t want to miss the chance to be screened for oral cancer.
Chen Lin, MD, who practices in the Department of Otolaryngology–Head and Neck Surgery at UI Health, and Ashleigh Weyh, MPH, DMD, MD, and Nicholas Callahan, MPH, DMD, MD, who both practice in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at UI Health, were instrumental in helping to plan the free screenings and also screened patients.