One question was all it took.
Usually it takes more. Sometimes two, other times three, maybe even 10 to 20 questions to get inside someone’s head, to learn about what makes them tick and to figure out the reasons they do what they do.
The one question posed to Dr. Fred Dreher, a local holistic dentist and naturopathic doctor, in a small windowless conference room inside the building that houses his practice was all it took. The question was pitched after about five minutes talking with Dreher and his office manager Lori Ann Wayand about the genesis of him providing dental services to the backstretch workers at Saratoga, how long he’s been doing it, how many patients he sees daily and weekly and so on.
“This is significant, and for lack of a better term, it’s a donation on your part. So tell me why. Why do you do this?”
Dreher paused. Gathered himself, started to talk and couldn’t speak. The lump in his throat was huge, the tears in his eyes real and look on his face sincere.
“Hmmm. . .,” Dreher said, then a long pause.
“Well, I think the big thing is . . . we enjoy having them so much,” he added, stopping to catch himself and welling up again.
So maybe it wasn’t just one question, maybe a follow-up or two, but you get the point.
“Is there something in your background, something that happened to you, that led you to do this for the backstretch workers?”
“I don’t know,” Dreher said. “I don’t have an answer for that.”
Wayand interjected, her timing as perfect as Pat Day at the finish of a Grade 1 stakes.
“It’s just in him,” she said. “He’s a different breed.”
“I just . . . I really enjoy helping people,” Dreher went on. “I’m just trying to help people that can use the help.”
Dreher can’t remember how long he’s been helping the backstretch workers with their dental needs.
He knows that the first year he saw maybe four or five.
Now his practice, which has 12 employees and is about 5 minutes from the Saratoga Spa State Park in the nebulous area to the west of Saratoga Springs that some call Ballston Spa and others call Saratoga, sees between three to five patients a day and as many as 500 from April to November.
Dreher works with the B.E.S.T. program, or Backstretch Employee Service Team, whose motto is “Caring for the people who care for the horses.” The Saratoga dental program, like a similar program downstate at Belmont Park, is funded entirely by the New York Thoroughbred Horseman’s Association.
Dreher likes horses and enjoys spending time at the track when the season comes around. He likes the morning, “when they’re training, it’s been exhilarating to see what happens at that time of day. The cool air. It’s just amazing. The stuff that goes on, the whole life you don’t know exists. It’s amazing what happens.”
The backstretch workers that Dreher sees in his practice receive a stipend from NYTHA for their medical needs.
“The biggest thing is you like to see how it’s being built,” Dreher said. “Just like any patient, where you’re getting them back every year. That’s when you know you’re doing your job.
“Some of these men and women have never been to a dentist. Some are scared to death. But when you get them back each year, do a little more and build confidence, that makes a big difference. That’s what we’re seeing now. We’re seeing people come back, repeat people. We know we’re doing our job when we can get them to come back and they’re happy to come back.”
Wayand goes on tell a story of one worker who came in this spring with a toothache. The tooth was bothering him all winter while he was in Florida. Services were probably provided there, but he chose to wait.
“He said ‘I had a toothache in Florida and I waited,’ ” Wayand said. “He knew he was coming back here for the summer, told us, ‘every day it hurts,’ his English was broken, but for him to explain that to us . . . of course we don’t want him in pain up to that point, but the fact that he waited he’s obviously had enough trust in Dr. Dreher from when he was here before. That’s huge.”
The services that Dreher and so many others provide to the backbone of the racetrack is certainly huge.
They do it with little recognition, fanfare and without bells and whistles.
My guess is they prefer it that way. They’re not in it for the trophies, the photo ops, the press releases and probably not this column.
Dreher says he’ll do more. He’s got a wife and three children, a healthy business outside his work with B.E.S.T. and part of his practice is a dental-assistant school that is filled to capacity for the upcoming fall session. Yet there’s no slowing him when it comes to helping out.
“We’re ready for more. No cap, we’ll figure it out,” he says when asked if there’s a limit to how many patients from the backstretch he’d take on. “There aren’t nearly enough. Most of them don’t even know that they have benefits. Getting the word out there would be great, because there are so many more out there that need help. The more we can get the word out the better.”
