West LA College Offering Free Dental Work For Volunteers

By / KCAL News, CBS Los Angeles

April 18, 2024 / 5:29 PM PDT

Experts say good dental hygiene benefits your overall health. Unfortunately, not everyone can afford it.

However, that's where West Los Angeles College comes in with their free clinic, where Christina Renteria is getting some work done.

"I'm trying to get a deep cleaning," she said.

West LA is one of the four California community colleges that offers a bachelor's degree in dental hygiene. It's a four-year commitment. A number of programs allow students to get some or all of their tuition waived.

Students Lesly Guzman and Elizabeth Ochoa take pride in providing free services to the community, even if you're not a student.

"I do know dental access is kind of hard to get especially at this time because it's really expensive," Ochoa said.

The school's clinic provides teeth cleaning, x-rays and other simple procedures — all supervised by the professors.

"A lot of my family hasn't been able to go receive dental services because they don't have dental insurance," Guzman said. "So, a lot of the time, dentistry was seen as a privilege."

CBS Local Digital Media personalizes the global reach of CBS-owned and operated television and radio stations with a local perspective.