A Day in the Life of a Dental X-Ray Station Volunteer at the Seattle/King County Clinic, February 16, 2024

Dental treatment area

Story and Photos by Doug Cerretti

Note: See links below for previous articles on the Seattle/King County Clinic

4:50 am: The alarm rings although my internal time clock already had my eyes open. I do not normally get up this early but I think about the patients at Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center who are in line for tickets as early as the night before waiting for them to be distributed at 5:30am. It was very cold last night so the doors were opened early so they could line up inside.

5:40 am: I depart Shoreline for the Mercer St garage where parking is free for volunteers. I am surprised how much traffic there is on I-5 this early.

Calling the next patients

6:05 am: I arrive at McCaw Hall for the volunteer check-in, volunteers checking in volunteers, and get my lunch ticket. I go upstairs to the volunteer breakroom for breakfast where they have coffee, tea, fruit, cereal and pastries. I met my good friend Carrie there. Carrie had been volunteering at SKCC for many years. I had “recruited” her last year and this year to the dental X-ray station. She found this job very interesting.

6:30 am: Dental triage orientation at Exhibition Hall. This is mostly for the dental professionals to go over the treatments available for the patients and to fill out the forms. As a General Support volunteer, basic computer skills are required for the dental x-ray station.

Panoramic x-ray machine

7:00 pm: Unexpectedly, both Carrie and I are assigned to the panoramic “pano” X-ray station where x-rays are taken that image all of your teeth. We enjoyed this time to catch up.

7:15 am: Patients arrive: 430 dental, 300 vision and 80 medical tickets were distributed at 5:30am. All were claimed by 7:00am.

Dr. Bob and Teri

10:00 am: It’s mid-morning and we have been going for four hours with the hustle and bustle of about 1000 volunteers and 750 patients this day. The controlled movement of people is amazing. Every patient is escorted to point A to B to C, etc. 

For dental, patients are escorted from ticket distribution to Expedition Hall, then to dental check-in, dental triage, triage checkout, dental treatment and finally dental checkout. If they need additional work, they repeat the process the next day.

Ten Dental Triage and Five X-ray Stations

11:30 am: Lunch at the Armory Loft where I get a chance to chat with other volunteers.

12:00 pm: I start substituting for other X-ray station volunteers as they go to lunch.

2:35 pm: Starting to feel tired but things are so busy you don’t think about it and time flies.

X-ray Station serving Triage 3 and 4.

3:00 pm: After substituting I settle into the dental X-ray station for triage 3 and 4.

4:30 pm: We see the last patient, #430, go through triage. Some of us hang around as the dentist performing treatment may need additional x-rays.

5:15 pm: Depart SKCC for home after 11 ½ hours. I repeated this process for two additional days. It wasn’t bad working that long each day. Next year I will volunteer all four days.

Epilogue 

You really have to be there to see the scale of the SKCC. A final accounting will be published in a couple of weeks but the four-day event will have seen over 3000 patients with the aid of about 4000 volunteers. 

It’s fortunate that we have SKCC but it is also unfortunate that we need SKCC. I believe medical care is a right, not a privilege. Society needs to determine what is important, healthcare should be on top of that list.

Volunteers Carrie, Holly, and Molly - volunteering is a joy

Volunteering for SKCC is very rewarding and I recommend it for all. Some of the volunteers work all day as I did but many jobs only require half-day shifts. Medical professionals are greatly needed but I would hazard to guess that over half of the volunteers are General Support requiring basic computer skills such as the dental X-ray station, escorting patients, filing patient records, volunteers checking in volunteers or maintaining the break room for example. There is a job if you are willing to help.

One of great benefits of volunteering is meeting the other volunteers many of whom I have seen year after year and some who were there at the first SKCC in 2014. 

Mark your calendar, the next SKCC is April 24-27, 2025. Please consider volunteering, as it is a joy.

See previous articles on SKCC in Shoreline Area News.

https://www.shorelineareanews.com/2022/10/the-seattle-king-county-free-vision.html

https://www.shorelineareanews.com/2023/08/volunteering-at-huge-free-seattle-king.html