{"id":219263,"date":"2024-09-25T15:07:19","date_gmt":"2024-09-25T19:07:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=219263"},"modified":"2025-09-29T11:31:51","modified_gmt":"2025-09-29T15:31:51","slug":"students-provide-dental-screenings-to-veterans-at-annual-stand-down-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2024\/09\/students-provide-dental-screenings-to-veterans-at-annual-stand-down-event\/","title":{"rendered":"Dental Students Screen Over 100 Veterans at Annual Stand Down Event"},"content":{"rendered":"

For many veterans across the state, access to essential social, financial, and health services can be hard to come by. Basic oral health care can be especially difficult, as dental benefits through the country\u2019s Veterans Affairs health system are only available to veterans with service-connected oral health issues.<\/p>\n

Working to help close the veterans oral health care gap is the UConn School of Dental Medicine. This past weekend, students and faculty participated in the Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs annual \u201cStand Down\u201d event<\/a>\u2014a one-stop shop for Connecticut\u2019s veterans to access services with a variety of state and federal agencies, nonprofits, and veterans organizations. From flu shots to legal services, local resources were available to veterans at several sites across the state.<\/p>\n

\"dental
Third-year dental students Jenna Whelan, Catherine Tang, and second-year student Dylan Hatajik distribute supplies during the 2024 Stand Down event.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThe Stand Down event was both impactful and memorable. Beyond providing services, we had the opportunity to listen to the veterans share their stories of their time serving,\u201d said student leader and third-year student Stephen Ogarekpe<\/p>\n

This is the second year that the School of Dental Medicine participated in this statewide event to deliver oral health screenings, hand out supplies such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, and denture cleaner, and distribute important information on resources for veterans. This year, the students provided over 100 screenings at the Bridgeport, Bristol, Danbury, Norwich, and Stamford locations.<\/p>\n

\"dental
Dr. John Agar with dental students Marley Esch, Lenka Serdar, and Nick Mattioli.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“It was an incredible experience to honor our local veterans and be a part of such a wonderful community event,\u201d said student leader and third-year student Lenka Serdar. \u201cIt was humbling to see so many veterans thank us for helping to determine their oral health needs and how to access care, when in reality we were most appreciative of their selfless service.\u201d<\/p>\n

Along with connecting with veterans and other vendors, the students met with U.S. Senator Chris Murphy in Danbury, and Mayor Caroline Simmons and State Senator Ryan Fazio in Stamford.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a fantastic morning, and we were able to provide screenings and answer important questions from veterans regarding their oral healthcare,\u201d said second-year student Dylan Hatajik.<\/p>\n

UConn School of Dental Medicine\u2019s efforts to address the dental care needs of veterans are made possible with philanthropic support, including the Delta Dental Foundation\u2019s support of our Open Wide for Veterans initiative.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Students performed screenings and connected veterans across state with important dental resources<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":219356,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2166,179],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2177],"class_list":["post-219263","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sdm","category-uconn-health"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-06 08:47:23","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219263","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/136"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=219263"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219263\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235962,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/219263\/revisions\/235962"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/219356"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=219263"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=219263"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=219263"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=219263"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=219263"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}