Dental clinic for uninsured closing without Hail Mary success

ST. PAUL, Minn. (FOX 9) - There’s only a glimmer of hope for a longtime St. Paul dental clinic filling a very important need by serving uninsured patients.

Mouthful of need

What to know: About 25% of Minnesotans don’t have dental insurance and Medicare doesn’t cover dental, so people who are older or lower income either pay out of pocket or they need a place like Hope Dental Clinic to stay open.

The pressure’s on at Hope, where dentists tap into their generosity and pull out all the stops for patients who have nowhere else to go.

"It's just we do what needs to be done," said Dr. Christine Hermanson.

Almost 2,800 patients came to Hope last year from all across Minnesota as well as Wisconsin and Iowa.

None of them had dental insurance and Hope is the only full-time clinic around to help patients like Mary.

"Definitely a game changer," said the 60 year old from Eagan.

Game changer

Local perspective: She was hospitalized twice for dental problems during the years she went without care.

Her daughter found Hope, so Mary could get healthier and open her mouth for wedding photos.

"I would have smiled like this," she said before closing her mouth completely, then reopening it to Finn her thought. "Instead, I smiled like this."

The clinic has operated for 60 years in St. Paul, the last six at this standalone location.

Closing time?

What they're saying: Their message to patients has recently changed.

"Hope Dental Clinic has closed permanently," said the staffer resetting the clinic's voicemail on Thursday.

Hope is more than 95% staffed by volunteers — about 450 of them.

But it costs almost $100,000 a month to keep the doors open.

"We've heard repeatedly no one wants us to close," said Hope Dental Clinic board chair Linda Maytan. Unfortunately, we can't pay the rent on good wishes. "So we're really hoping that our Hail Mary is caught."

Two weeks ago, they laid everybody off and closed up shop.

"We have a bunch of patients that are still in the middle of treatment," said Dr. Natalie Gomez. "It's absolutely heartbreaking."

Here to help

Why you should care: FOX 9 watched Drs. Hermanson and Gomez pull a patient's rotting tooth on Thursday, but the dentists didn’t schedule the visit, so the man could pose for the cameras.

They did it because they had to come for an interview and figured they still had work to do, even in a closed clinic.

Mary came for the same reason.

"We're here today," she said. "We're here right now. And I'm hoping that I will not be the last patient over here."

The clinic's board is open to all sorts of ideas for getting funding and staying open.

But as it stands, the lights go out when the year ends.