This is a Journal Services advertorial.
Dental care may not be the first thing that comes to mind when families think about healthcare (that being a trip to the doctor’s office) but dental care is one of the range of professional services offered to its clients by Trinity Community Health Centers of Louisiana.
This professional service with highly sophisticated technical capabilities is available at Trinity’s clinics in Winnfield, Marksville, Colfax, Ruston and Ringgold. Let’s step into their original dental office in Winnfield where the sign “Winn Community Dental Center” hangs on a building across the street from where Trinity’s three-story office complex is now rising impressively.
Here you’re greeted by Dr. Joe Rustom whose warm smile must put at ease those who might experience angst over being at the dentist’s. Dr. Rustom grew up in Greenwood, MS, met his wife in Houston, graduated from the University of Tennessee and settled into Winnfield in 2014 where his first practice was with Trinity.
“We see all ages,” emphasized the doctor. The office staff includes two hygienists who handle all the tooth cleaning responsibilities. A second dentist, Dr. Marc Lippas, has joined the Winn office on a fulltime basis. His wife, Dr. Katie Lippas, serves as dentist is the Marksville office.
Dr. Rustom explained that Trinity can handle the full range of general dentistry needs at its clinics, including cleaning, fillings, extractions, dentures, bridges, crowns and even some root canals. Not in the picture are braces and implants. “We work with a network of specialists in Ruston, Alexandria, Shreveport and Natchitoches who can take care of those patients who we can’t.”
Unique to the Winnfield office is their ability to create in-house same-day crowns. “Dentistry has changed a lot over the decade since I began,” he explained. In the past, the patient would bite into a mold to create a casting for a crown’s design. Dr. Rustom displayed a hand-held scanner that transfers the full image of a problem area onto an interactive computer where the crown is digitally designed then “we adjust for small details for an ideal fit.” In a workroom, more high-tech equipment uses that image to create an actual crown which is then heat-treated, ready for placement.
Dental care is also available through Winn’s school-based program. With parental approval at the start of the year, students may be bused to the clinic for exams, tooth-cleaning and X-rays. If additional dentistry is needed, a letter is sent home to parents whose responsibility it is to bring the child back in for their appointment.
As a man who likes to hunt and fish (especially offshore), he concludes “we’ve enjoyed our time here.” Wife Leah teaches 5th grade at Winnfield Middle School. They have two children, Abe, 9, and Marilyn, 7.
