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by Colleen O'Dea
Some might say Dr. Mary Ann Gataletto ('86) practices the
toughest kind of dentistry: Her patients are exclusively people
with developmental, emotional, and brain-injury disabilities.
Many have extensive dental problems because they don't understand
or practice proper dental care. Yet these patients can't or aren't
willing to sit still and open wide for treatment they sometimes
find frightening.
But to Dr. Gataletto, it's the most interesting and rewarding
work imaginable.
"I don't say I work with people with disabilities,"
says Dr. Gataletto, director of the dental department at Woods
Services in Langhorne, Pa., a facility for the disabled. "I
say I work with people with different personalities. I just get
to know them, what they like and what they don't. From there,
I'm usually successful in administering treatment."
Dr. Gataletto took a less than traditional route not only
to her special brand of dentistry, but also to the profession
itself.
After graduating from high school in New Rochelle, N.Y., she
worked for Dr. Melvyn Oppenheim as a chairside assistant in his
Scarsdale, N.Y., practice. While working full time, she attended
Pace University part time, earning her bachelor of science degree
in 1981. Dr. Gataletto says it was Dr. Oppenheim, a clinical
professor of Pediatric Dentistry at NJDS, who convinced her she
should become a pediatric dentist herself.
"He felt I really had the knack," says Dr. Gataletto.
She continued to work part time for Dr. Oppenheim while attending
classes full time at NJDS, where, at age 28, she felt like "the
senior citizen in the class."
Dr. Gataletto was treasurer of the Student Government Association
in 1985 and graduated with the Quintessence Clinical Achievement
Award in Periodontics and a Certificate of Merit from the American
Society of Dentistry for Children.
She completed her residency in pediatric dentistry at the
Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University at
Bronx Municipal Hospital Center. That's where she met Dr. Harold
Diner, who inspired her to work with the developmentally disabled.
"He was so brilliant in his field, he made it so interesting
to me," Dr. Gataletto says. "It was such an easy field
to him. He could convey that to me."
After earning a certificate in pediatric dentistry, Dr. Gataletto
received a fellowship and earned a certificate in dentistry for
the developmentally disabled. And although she does not practice
"traditional" pediatric dentistry, the dentist is board
certified in the specialty.
While Dr. Gataletto did a brief stint in a Manalapan, N.J.,
private practice, she decided that's not how she wanted to spend
her career. Instead, she chose to continue working with the disabled.
She stayed on at Albert Einstein, first as educational coordinator
for the fellowship program in Dentistry for the Developmentally
Disabled and then as co-director of the program through 1994,
when she was offered the position at Woods Services.
"I used to think I would stay at Einstein forever,"
says Dr. Gataletto. "It took several months for me to decide
to do this. In fact, I refused it twice. But my boss here was
very persuasive."
The commute wasn't much of a factor in her decision. Dr. Gataletto
can make it from her home in Staten Island, N.Y., to Langhorne
in little more than an hourless than the commute to the
Bronx was on bad days. She lives in Staten Island because that's
where her husband, Anthony DeGaetano, had a home and is the accountant
for a family-owned business.
Woods Services is a private, non-profit residential facility
that provides education, therapy, life skills, vocational training,
job placement, senior citizens activities, and a camp for 1,200
people from ages 4 through 80-something.
Dr. Gataletto says the patients just need someone to take
the time and use the right approach to provide a positive dental
experience with which they'll cooperate. She can give both.
"I don't have the private practice pressure of treating
a volume of patients," says Dr. Gataletto. "It may
take 45 minutes to 'count teeth,' but if for that person we've
never been able to do that before, then it's time well spent."
She finds the time-honored dental advice of "Tell them
what you're going to do, show them what you're going to do, then
do it" is all that's needed with many patients.
One of her job's major challenges has been improving the general
dental hygiene of the population, for which good oral care has
not been a priority. That helps make regular check-ups and cleanings
easier. It's slow going, but with the help of the rest of the
staff, Dr. Gataletto thinks she can change that.
"Someone responsible for the client may not feel comfortable
getting in there to clean the teeth well," she says. "It's
invading such a private area."
In addition to working with the disabled, Dr. Gataletto has
held educational programs for the Woods staff. She also has a
dental page in the facility's newsletter with a "Best Brusher
of the Month" feature, trivia questions, and other items
to try to make dental care more fun.
"If we can improve the daily oral care, people can feel
more comfortable, have quicker appointments, and fewer invasive
appointments," she says. "We're moving in that direction."
Dr. Gataletto provides most of the dental treatment at the
facility. But there are community dentists who do more extensive
work such as crowns and bridges and complicated extractions when
necessary. There are only about a dozen clients whom she sends
to the University of Pennsylvania's dentists to have work done
under general anesthesia. These are patients who have multiple
dental needs along with behavior problems that are so great they
could hurt themselves or others.
Dr. Gataletto sees a great need for more dental students to
learn to work with the disabled. She says it's something that
has to be taught specifically, and even then, can't be learned
by everyone.
"You can teach the technique, like how to put a child
at ease, but you can't teach people to have a comfort level doing
the work," she says. "My patients are great at seeing
if you're insincere."
More fellowships like the one at Einstein need to be developed
so there's a larger group of dentists trained to work with the
disabled not just in facilities, but also in private practice,
Dr. Gataletto believes. She herself teaches part time in the
Department of Pediatric Dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania.
"I don't know that traditional dental school training
provides enough about working with the disabled," she says.
"More fellowship programs need to exist. It's essential
to be well-rounded in your training. People with disabilities
often have other medical problems.
A dentist should be a doctor, not just a tooth mechanic."
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