Hot off the Presses!

It's been eight days now since we treated our 10,000th patient through the mobile dental program, and we were thrilled so many news outlets in the Oklahoma City Metro were interested in covering our milestone!

Reporters from KOCO, KFOR, KWTV, Telemundo and Journal Record were all in attendance and did a great job in capturing our program and the day's special occasion. Below are a few of the published articles.

Article from The Journal Record - Published September 7

Mobile dental unit serves 10,000th patient

By Sarah Terry-Cobo

OKLAHOMA CITY – Dafne Soto had molars extracted in the parking lot of the Latino Community Development Agency on Thursday. The 8-year-old was the 10,000th patient seen in the Oklahoma Dental Foundation’s mobile unit,  a converted recreational vehicle.

Bernice Saldana, Soto’s mother, had noticed her daughter’s cavities, but said she didn’t have dental insurance to cover the necessary treatment.

“This is a great help for us,” Saldana said in Spanish.

Saldanda’s 4-year-old son, Ricardo, was also treated at the mobile clinic on Thursday.

The Soto children are among thousands of people living in the metro area who aren’t covered by dental insurance.

Saldana said she is glad she can bring her children to get free dental care, saving her family hundreds of dollars. Even though there are 449 dentists licensed to work in Oklahoma City and 664 licensed to work in Oklahoma County, John Gladden, president and CEO of Delta Dental of Oklahoma, said many residents lack access to dental care, not just those who live in rural areas.

“It wouldn’t matter if there was a dentist on every corner,” he said. “If parents don’t take their children, they won’t go.”

Delta Dental of Oklahoma Oral Health Foundation, a nonprofit organization, has donated about $250,000 for the creation of the mobile dental unit, which has been in operation since 2006.

John Wilguess, executive director of the Oklahoma Dental Foundation, said that the majority of their patients have low incomes. In 2011, nearly a third of patients had a household income of $10,000 or less and about 70 percent had a household income of less than $20,000. Only 35 percent of the patients said they qualified for Medicaid, Wilguess said.

The need for the mobile dental unit is so great in the state that the Oklahoma Dental Foundation’s board has approved the purchase od a new unit tha tiwll be custom-built. Having a second unit that can travel from town to town will allow the original unit to stay in one place for several days, Wilguess said. That will allow dentists to perform follow-up visits on their patients, which are often necessary, he said. 

Article from Edmond Life & Leisure - Published September 13

Dentist from Edmomd part of Milestone

Helping the 10,000th patient

OKLAHOMA CITY – The Oklahoma Dental Foundation Mobile Dental Unit has provided free dental care to more than 10,000 patients as of Sept. 6. Dafne Soto, 8, of Oklahoma City was the honored 10,000th patient served on the mobile unit as it made a stop at the Latino Community Development Agency. Soto was one of eight children and youth who had an appointment for needed dental care Thursday.

The mobile dental unit travels across the state each year as part of ODF’s Mobile Dental Care Program.

“She didn’t know she was going to be the 10,000th patient,” said Berenice Saldana, Soto’s mother. “It was a surprise, but she’s happy. She enjoyed it.”

Saldana said her daughter needed care for cavities that were causing her back teeth to crumble, but Saldana is a single mother of three children and does not have insurance.

“It is very beneficial for my family to be able to come here and receive free care on the mobile dental unit,” Saldana said.

 The Oklahoma Dental Foundation began the mobile dental care program in 2006 using volunteer dentists. Since that time, Delta Dental of Oklahoma Oral Health Foundation has supported the program with nearly $1 million in grants. Part of that funding has allowed the program to double its reach by paying for contract dentists to go to rural areas where access to care is especially low and to provide services during weekdays when volunteers are unavailable.

 “When I first began treating dental patients on the mobile unit, I thought the cost of dental care was the only barrier,” said Jeannie Bath, the dentist on site Sept. 6. “But driving out to a rural site, I think of our patients driving those same long, lonely Oklahoma roads back toward town for their needed dental care. 

“Having the ability to address urgent and potential emergency infections on the mobile dental unit, allows us to prevent patients without a dentist from seeking temporary relief for that infection in the ER.”

Celebrating 10,000 Patients!

In 2006, when the Mobile Dental Care program started down the road of serving Oklahomans in need of dental care, the idea of reaching 10,000 people was hopeful, but still far beyond the horizon. Now, just six years later, we are thrilled to celebrate treating 10,000 Oklahomans of all ages, races and income levels through our program.

As we look to the future of the program, we see exciting challenges:
• A second mobile unit currently under construction - a pipe dream less than a year ago;
• Expanding our program to all 77 counties in Oklahoma;
• New partnerships with organizations invested in creating better opportunities for Oklahomans; and
• supporting our mission to eliminate barriers to oral health care for the populations they serve - women leaving prison, the mentally ill, homeless, indigenous and at-risk populations of all ages.

Working with these groups shows most clearly just how many more people need our help and how we can better serve our fellow Oklahomans. Now, we look ahead and see great possibilities – while knowing these past six years have led us to this mile marker of success.

Dafne stands with ODF Executive Director John Wilguess,
Delta Dental of Oklahoma President & CEO John Gladden,
Dr. Jeannie Bath, and Captain Supertooth

Moving to September 6, we celebrated our 10,000th patient while at the Latino Community Development Agency in Oklahoma City. We have partnered with the LCDA for almost five years, and visited there over thirty times with our program providing screenings and treatment for their clients. We had the pleasure of treating 8-year-old Dafne Soto, our lucky 10,000th patient! Longtime volunteer Dr. Jeannie Bath (Edmond) provided treatment that day. Dafne's mother scheduled and appointment for her after seeing decay on Dafne's lower molars. Dr. Bath extracted the molars and also gave her some hygiene lessons to keep her teeth healthy! The Soto family was very grateful for the services they received through the LCDA and the Mobile Dental Unit, which saved them hundreds of dollars the low-income and non-insured family did not have. 

We see people like Dafne everyday all around Oklahoma. While we celebrated Dafne on Thursday, we know there are still many like her and the Soto family that are in need of our services. 

Dafne thanks Dr. Bath after receiving dental treatment

Obviously a huge thanks goes out to our program funders who believed in our dream from the beginning, and continue to help us expand our program. 

Mobile Unit Seeks to Visit Every County from 2010 to 2012

Counties the mobile unit has visited from 2010 to August 6, 2012 in grey

When Katherine Adams became Access to Care Director for the ODF in March, she noticed an unintentional trend in mobile unit scheduling. Many cities were being frequented more than others, thus, there was a gap in areas served. While we value the sites we visit on a regular basis, we wanted our program to accurately represent and serve the entire state.  Katherine and the Access to Care Committee then set a goal to visit all 77 Oklahoma counties by the end of the year, and back-dated to 2010 to begin the journey. Some counties we have visited previously, just not since 2010. When we set our goal, 30 counties were left and we have made great efforts working with the State Department of Health and each county’s Dental Health Educator to make our goal a reality. We want them aware of our program and its benefits so we can see as many Oklahomans as possible – some of them for the first time. We'll provide updated maps as our journey progresses! If you can connect us with a county we have yet to serve, please let us know!

Mobile Unit Celebrates 10,000 Patients Sept. 6

Tomorrow we will celebrate a milestone!  On September 6, we will celebrate treating 10,000 patients (and counting) while at the Latino Community Development Agency (LCDA) in Oklahoma City.  LCDA is a longtime partner with the ODF and has hosted the mobile unit 30 times in the last several years. On board with us that day will be outstanding volunteer Dr. Jeannie Bath.  In 2008, the LCDA presented the Mobile Program with their "Organizational Guardian Angel" award for providing services to their clients. Over the years, we have frequently provided screenings and treatment to children and adults in their programs. We look forward to celebrating 10,000 patients served with our Mobile Program when we visit them tomorrow.  In the more than six years of the mobile unit’s existence, we have had the pleasure of providing over $1.7 million of charitable dentistry across the state - greatly affecting the communities we visit. Since the program's launch in April 2006, we have averaged over 1,500 patients a year, and look forward to seeing even more with our expanded program when our additional mobile unit arrives later this year.  We can't wait for tomorrow to get here and celebrate with one of our major funders, Delta Dental of Oklahoma Oral Health Foundation, the ODF staff and our wonderful volunteer Dr. Bath! Don't forget to check back for pictures of the day!