U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin toured the new Erie Health Center in Evanston this afternoon and hosted a roundtable discussion on affordable access to dental care.

As a young patient received care in one of the center’s five dental suites, Dr. Lisa Kearney, clinical director of oral health at Erie, described the center’s services.

Asked by Durbin about the cost of an education for dentists, Kearney said many dentists now emerge from training with $200,000 to $400,000 in college debt. “It’s bonkers crazy,” she added…

Dr. Avery Hart, the medical director at Erie’s Evanston site, said the center, which opened last fall, uses a shared service with other facilities across the country that provides interpeters for patients who don’t speak English.

“So I call and say I need a Mongolian interpeter,” Hart said, “and 30 to 60 seconds later they’re back on the line — ‘here’s your Mongolian interpreter.'”…

At the roundtable session, Jane Grover, director of prevention and interprofessional relations for the American Dental Association, urged Durbin to support fluoridation of community water supplies as a way to prevent dental cavities.

“You mean it’s not a communist conspiracy?” Durbin joked in response.

Grover then said Chicago water, which is fluoridated, is the best tasting water in the country, and got a quick challenge from Mayor Elizabeth Tisdahl, who insisted Evanston’s water is actually the best tasting.

Evanston’s water supply has also been fluoridated for decades despite occasional complaints from a handful of residents about the practice…

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