Million dollar smile
amaus
ABOVE: An Amaus family photo of staff and volunteers, past and present, celebrating the milestone.
By Dc. Tom Cuskey, editor
Sun photos l Chuck Wainwright
Its origins in August 2014 were as humble as those who have served there ever since.
A dental clinic, staffed by volunteers from the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in downtown Syracuse, totaled $10,000 in free services extended to the needy by December of that year.
Fast forward nine and a half years to May 2024. The Amaus Dental Clinic is celebrating a milestone: $1 million in free services rendered to a grateful and underserved community. And counting.
The million-dollar mark was celebrated recently with an open house and reception at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception campus where staff and volunteers, past and present, gathered to celebrate an amazing story of service to others and great success.
Putting out the shingle
Dr. David Dasher was sitting at the entrance of the Bishop Curley Building, which is home to the Amaus clinic on the second floor. He greeted reception guests and well-wishers. In conversation, he shared that in 2014, Dr. Lynn Beth-Saterlee, the founding medical director of the Amaus Medical Clinic at Cathedral, had interest in expanding to offer dental services. She reached out to a handful of local dentists, a few of whom didn’t think a clinic would be viable. “But I thought we could make a go of it,” Dasher said. “So she planted the seed, and we ran with it.”
Dasher had no fear of the task. His clinic-based experience was drawn from 23 years active duty in the U.S. Air Force followed by time in public health dentistry. He came to Syracuse as dental director at the Syracuse Community Health Center. By 2017, he was working full-time at the Amaus Clinic.
He no longer provides patient care but is still active at the clinic he kickstarted, handling administrative tasks. What does reaching the million-dollar mark mean to him?
“It’s more than we expected, much more,” he told us. “And it’s so much more rewarding, you know, to give to people and to see that they appreciate it.”
Volunteers
Dasher had a good number of volunteers from Cathedral who helped launch the clinic. Tom Mueller was one of a significant group of folks who said yes to a parish request for clinic volunteers in 2014.
Dasher worked with these helpers to assist with patient registration, check-in, record-keeping and other non-clinical duties. Mueller said the system that was developed did more than collect patient data; it made patients feel like real people when they made an appointment.
“I think maybe they don’t always get that kind of respect all the time, that there’s a slot waiting for them … they have a time,” Mueller said. “What we try to give them, and I think [it] was a huge part, wasn’t just the dentistry …[it] was to be smiling and greeting them and letting them know and if there’s some difficulty or concern we put the concerns at ease.”
Mueller said the first days and weeks weren’t always busy, “and then later on it really got rolling, and the phone was ringing a lot.”
The deacon dentist joins the effort
Deacon Bob Fangio was ordained in 2012. Before that, he was more widely known as Dr. Bob Fangio, D.D.S, and he still is. His work in the clinic has brought his two worlds of service together.
“As a deacon, you know … you want to be humble. But there is this sense of real pride in what has been accomplished here,” he said.
Fangio is not the lone provider in the clinic. “We have around 10 dentists who come in, some once a week, some once a month,” he said. “We also have about three or four dental hygienists who come in on a regular basis. We have a few retired dental assistants, and they help to train the students who also reach a point where they can actually assist full-time.” Area dentists have also been generous through the years in helping with needed equipment.
Fangio retired from his private practice in 2014 and has given the last 10 years to the clinic. The timing was perfect. As Dasher was starting to slow down in his clinical responsibilities, Fangio was able to fill the leadership void and keep the ministry moving forward.
“And it just naturally fell to me. And I’m very glad that it did. And now I’m hoping I’m going to have somebody to keep this going,” he shared with a laugh.
A learning experience
There is a parallel opportunity being served here, too, that both Dasher and Fangio are equally excited about.
“One of the things we do is we take pre-dental students, like at Lemoyne or Syracuse University, and have them come in and work with us to become dental assistants,” Dasher said. “And a lot of them – 17 to be exact – have gone on to dental school. Dasher said the experience they have received at the clinic helps them in a competitive situation. There are simply more medical schools than dental schools so, “dental school is more difficult to get in than medical school,” he said.
In upstate New York, for example, there are four medical schools but only Buffalo also has a dental school, so based on classroom space alone, having an experiential leg up in the process is invaluable to an applicant.
“And we’ve had people accepted to dental schools all over the country from Florida to Milwaukee, of course, a number to Buffalo, Portland, Maine, some down in New York,” he added. So it’s really a good thing, a good offshoot of this.”
One hopeful student
Abhinav Arora is well aware of the opportunity Amaus offers. A junior at Syracuse University with an eye on dental school, the profession is in his DNA; his grandfather was a dentist as is his father. His brother has been accepted to dental school. Service to others is a family tradition as well.
“So I joined a couple of years ago. My dad has always wanted [this] for a long time,” Arora said. “He wanted me to come out too and volunteer.”
Abhi, as he is known, has volunteered in service ministries before, “but coming here was a completely different experience because you know, you see, all these people don’t have insurance.” He has experienced a deep sense of personal compassion for the clinic’s clients. “It makes you realize … how blessed you are. And it’s kind of our job as privileged enough to help other people. Being able to help these people, It’s kind of a big deal for me.”
Of course, the dental exposure carries a lot of impact as well. “Just being able to assist and see the dentist, you know, work on the patients, it’s really interesting,” Abhi added. “[It] motivates me to work harder and hopefully become a dentist.”
Tom Mueller, one of the original volunteers, said that “Dave Dasher is the one that really is responsible for [the clinic], a kind man who’s so good with everybody, has been so good with the young people going to go on to dental school. And I just liked the way he and Bob Fangio just nurtured them and took care of them and took care of us.”
And took care of a grateful community in need.
