But Beeville’s new dentist is settling in to the routine of the Coastal Bend quite well these days.
Dr. Girish Sandadi has been living in Kingsville since the first of last month, practicing two days a week in that city and three days a week the Community Action Health Center at 301 S. Hillside Drive.
Born 29 years ago in the southeast state of Andhra Pradesh, India’s fourth largest state by area and the fifth largest by population, Sandadi spent his youth in the capital city of Hyderabad.
The high-tech center of the nation, the city is often called the Istanbul of India. The state also grows 77 percent of India’s rice crop and has one of the longest coast lines of any state along the Bay of Bengal.
Sandadi earned his bachelor of dental surgery degree in Shimoga, in the Indian state of Karnataka west of his home, and practiced dentistry in India for a year before moving to Chicago in the fall of 2004.
He earned his master of health administration degree at Governor’s State University in Chicago in 2007 and then moved to Ann Arbor, Mich., to study for his advanced standing in dentistry at the University of Michigan. He completed that program earlier this year.
“This is my first job,” Sandadi said.
Of course, that does not count the time he spent practicing in India and the years of clinical work he did while in Michigan.
Sandadi said he is hoping eventually to practice at the Beeville clinic five days a week. Although he now lives in Kingsville, the active bachelor hopes to move to Beeville when that happens.
“I believe prevention is better than cure, Sandadi said. He would rather keep his patients out of his office than see them there undergoing treatment for dental problems.
“If we can do that, I think I’ll be doing a good job,” Sandadi said.
After seeing patients here for the past two months, he said he has found people in Beeville to be thankful for his help.
“If you do something nice for them, they appreciate it,” Sandadi said.
The CAHC is a relative newcomer to Beeville’s medical health community.
According to center director Leonor Alvarez, the center opened at the Spohn Medical Plaza (formerly the Doctors Building) a little more than a year ago.
The center has a nurse practitioner, Kathie Menenger, on staff for its family practice service. Dr. Mohamad Hassan is in charge of pediatrics and Dr. Cheryl Clarke offers OB/GYN services.
Alvarez said the center accepts all types of patients, including those on Medicare, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program and patients with private health insurance. Uninsured patients pay on a sliding scale adjusted according to income.
Enrolled center patients also can get reduced prices for laboratory work.
The center sees an average of 60 patients a day, from 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
A Medicaid worker is now on staff who can assist people in applying for that program and for those like food stamps and Temporary Assistance to Needy Families.
Anyone who would like to enroll as a patient at the center may contact Liliana Lopez at 362-0307.
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