Evergreen Healthcare of Butte will be sponsoring a blood drive with United Blood Services on Friday, December 29th. Their bus will be parked at Evergreen, 3261 Nettie (corner of Continental and Nettie) from 1 to 4 p.m. If you have questions, call 723-3225.

Butte firefighters will be in front of the Butte Plaza Mall (3100 Harrison) Friday between noon and 5 PM filling up their boots for the Muscular Dystrophy Association. Please have some spare change ready when heading down Harrison and support this good cause.

I did some calling around today in the effort to make a dental appointment for my brother, whose dentist moved to a different state some time ago. He’s been having some pain, so it’s not something that can wait months for an opening.

I was surprised to find out that in Butte, it’s not uncommon for a dentist to be booked months in advance. According to what one receptionist told me, it’s because there just aren’t enough dentists in Butte.

Google shows 34 dentists in the Butte area, although that includes Whitehall, Anaconda, Deer Lodge and Sheridan too.

We’ll be driving to Deer Lodge because Butte dentists were booked up in some cases through May! The earliest appointment I could find in town was the 27th of this month–that’s 20 days out.

I was told that Helena has plenty of dentists so it’s easy to get an appointment over there if you’re willing to drive the 60+ miles that is.

So this is a two-part post. Participate!

1. Who is your dentist? How long have you been seeing him/her? Would you recommend him/her? How far out do you book your appointments? If you have an emergency do they make special arrangements to accommodate you?

2. Why do you think there is such a shortage of dentists in the Mining City? What can we do to increase the availability of local dental care?

And why didn’t I go to dental school? ;)