{"id":235694,"date":"2025-09-24T13:21:00","date_gmt":"2025-09-24T17:21:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=235694"},"modified":"2025-09-24T14:25:30","modified_gmt":"2025-09-24T18:25:30","slug":"dental-students-screen-over-90-connecticut-veterans","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2025\/09\/dental-students-screen-over-90-connecticut-veterans\/","title":{"rendered":"Dental Students Screen Over 90 Connecticut Veterans"},"content":{"rendered":"

Most veterans currently enrolled in the Veterans Affairs (VA) health care system are ineligible for VA dental benefits because they do not have service-connected dental issues.<\/p>\n

To help close the oral health care gap for veterans, students in the School of Dental Medicine participated in the 2025 Connecticut Department of Veterans Affairs Stand Down<\/a>\u2014an annual event that connects Connecticut veterans with essential services and programs offered by federal, state, and local agencies, organizations, and non-profits.<\/p>\n

\"Female
Dental student Madison Witt providing a screening at the Norwich location.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“I am so honored to have had the opportunity to share resources and provide oral screenings to this incredible population that has sacrificed so much for us,\u201d said Marissa Airoldi, third-year dental student leader. \u201cGetting to sit with them and hear their stories was such a privilege in itself. They were so overwhelmed with gratitude for us just being there, when it is them, we are eternally grateful to!\u201d<\/p>\n

A total of 18 dental students, comprising of 5 second-year, and 13 third-year students, screened approximately 93 veterans, and provided over 100 veterans with educational resources on oral health care.<\/p>\n

“As a future dental provider, I am always finding ways to get to know the community I am serving, and the veterans Stand Down event allowed me the opportunity to connect with veterans and give back to individuals who have done so much for our country. It was truly an honor to serve them during this special event,\u201d said Madison Witt, third-year dental student.<\/p>\n

This is the third year that the School of Dental Medicine participated in this event to deliver oral health screenings, hand out supplies such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, and denture cleaner, and distribute important information on resources for veterans.<\/p>\n

This year, the students stationed at five regional locations: Bridgeport, Danbury, Norwich, Stamford, and Southington.<\/p>\n

\"five
Dr. Moises Salas with dental students Alex Figuenick, Madison Witt, John Campbell, and Daniel Kotait.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Daniel Kotait, a third-year student said, \u201cI had a great time at the veteran\u2019s Stand Down event in Norwich. I\u2019m grateful for the chance to give back and support veterans in a very tangible way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not only did the students provide essential services for veterans, but they also gained valuable clinical learning experience as they worked alongside several faculty members.<\/p>\n

\"five
Dental student Tori Pascoe, Dr. Anna Dongari-Bagtzoglou, dental students Henry Shaffer, Joseph Wojtasiki, and Matthew Fernandez in Southington.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“It was an honor to serve those who have served our country,\u201d said third-year student Kara Christensen. \u201cI’m grateful to have the opportunity to give back to veterans in a meaningful way.\u201d<\/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 resources at annual Stand Down event<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":235696,"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-235694","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":"2026-05-25 19:03:56","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\/235694","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=235694"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235694\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":235712,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235694\/revisions\/235712"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/235696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235694"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235694"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235694"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=235694"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=235694"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}