Absolutely free dental and eye exams in Columbia from WellPartners

COLUMBIA, S.C. — A free of charge community clinic for patients devoid of vision or dental insurance not long ago has obtained a $50,000 grant. The grant will be employed by WellPartners to keep on serving uninsured and underinsured people in Richland, Lexington, and Fairfield counties.

“That’s what tends to make you really feel fantastic, right?” claimed Dr. Elisabeth Lawson, an optometrist at the Richland WellPartners eye and dental clinic. “That you assisted somebody, that you transformed their life, for the much better, and that you ideally supplied them a company that they can then use to better equip them selves and their life.” 

WellPartners Clinics, owned and operated by United Way of the Midlands, provide people in Richland, Lexington, and Fairfield counties without eyesight or dental insurance coverage, who meet income requirements.

Dr. Tamara Stockton is the dental director for the Richland clinic. Stockton and Lawson each say the care they present can be lifetime-altering for individuals. 

“After the initial stop by, you get them out of soreness, you educate them on the appropriate dental treatment, and their eyes kinda open,” Stockton said. “They’re additional educated, they acquire accountability for their dental health, and they just- their attitudes improve and they wanna do greater with a large amount of issues.” 

“They can’t see any road symptoms, they simply cannot observe Television set, they can not see significantly absent,” Lawson explained. “They get that 1st pair of glasses and it is like a complete new environment, they can see all the leaves on the trees, they can see all the indicators, they can see their family’s faces, they can tell who’s going for walks in direction of them.” 

WellPartners clinics not long ago been given a $50k grant from the Leon Levine Foundation that vendors say will allow for them to assistance a lot more individuals, like Mohamed Addahoumi. 

“I come to feel seriously fantastic about that,” said Mohamed Addahoumi, a patient at the dental clinic. “That’s seriously magnificent.” 

Addahoumi is one of about 5,000 people today the clinics served in the very last fiscal year, and suggests acquiring dental treatment in other places was just about difficult for him. 

“Because almost everywhere you go is really pricey,” Addahoumi said. “Here you just utilize for the papers and for free.” 

The grant, which the basis also furnished in 2022, will go towards clinic working bills, bringing in a lot more sufferers who qualify and continuing no cost care for the local community. 

“It’s massive for us,” Lawson claimed. “$50,000 goes a extensive way for eyewear, for our patients, permitting us to deliver these free glasses for clients, also specialty get hold of lenses which we get in touch with medically required, we also have to do fairly a few referrals.” 

“We’re very enthusiastic about the Leon Levine grant that we not too long ago gained,” Stockton said. “It enables us to assist with working bills simply because we are a cost-free clinic, we are purely funded by grants, so obtaining grants like this allow for us to go on serving the patients that we see and support supply them with products and services that we may possibly not offer you listed here.”

Stockton states funding is a reliable struggle and that the vendors are grateful for the option to assist much more individuals. 

The WellPartners clinics in Lexington and Richland counties are positioned in the county well being departments and possible patients can phone to examine eligibility.