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May 27, 2005
Dentist gains county supportPATTEN SEEKS WAIVER ON $1,500 CLINICAL EXAM STATE REQUIRES
By PHILLIP GOMEZ Pamela Patten, D.D.S., went before the Board of County Commissioners Monday to request that a letter be written to the Nevada State Board of Examiners, asking that she be granted a waiver of the clinical exam requirement costing $1,500. Patten, who currently lives and works at two clinics in Yerington, wants to relocate to Pahrump, where she has lived most of her life since 1984. She is licensed to practice dentistry in Nebraska and Nevada, she said. Her goal is to open a practice in Pahrump and expand it to a mobile clinic serving the needy around Nye County. To do so, she would have to re-license in her new county and take the clinical exam. But since Nye County is deemed an underserved area of Nevada, according to Nevada law she can be excused from taking the exam if the county commissioners would support her relocation and dentistry goals. According to census figures for 2000, Nevada's population growth for the decade 1990-2000 resulted in a population at 200-percent of the federal poverty level. Nye County experienced a growth rate of 132 percent during that period, many of the in-migrants unable to afford dental care. Grant funding money for Patten's two clinics in Lyon County has expired, which is prompting her move to Pahrump at the end of May. She is currently a Medicaid provider and intends to remain one. "I have seen enormous dental needs of citizens in rural areas and would like to make a positive impact on the health of the people in my home county," she wrote in the agenda information form for her meeting with the commissioners. "Nevada is 49th in the nation for oral health care," she said. Its sparse supply of dentists relative to the population results in higher rates than elsewhere for dental services. "I want to see people who need it the most, Patten told the commissioners. "I can't deny those people. I have seen people who have gone without services for 20 years. There are many people in need. I've seen babies with their teeth rotted off." Patten indicated that her practice would be open to everyone not just the needy. "We have an 'F' in unmet oral health needs (in Nevada)," she said. The commissioners unanimously granted her request. Patten said she plans to be open for business within six months. |
