The Office Invades the Mobile Dental Unit!

August 1 - 3 I had the opportunity to be on the mobile dental unit as it traveled to Owasso, Tulsa and Perkins where community leaders and organizations took time out of their schedules to help those in desperate need of dental care and no resources to receive it. Typically, my work is done behind a desk, so I was a bit out of my comfort zone as I entered the trenches of our mobile dental unit - processing x-rays and entering patients into our Dentrix system - while our Community Coordinator, Steve, was on vacation.

In Owasso, we participated in the New Heights Church "Back to School" day - a day where the church and it's wonderful volunteers give school supplies, clothes and shoes, hair cuts, eye and medical exams to those in the community with children in need. The Mobile Dental Unit was able to provide free dental services to nine children that had been pre-screened by a dental hygienist who happened to be a member of the church earlier, and a patient list was built from there. When we went to park the Unit at the church just after 8 a.m., I was so surprised at how many people were already there! Lines were out the building, parking lots were so full they were forced to park across the street - this was apparently a service the community was looking forward to. Thanks very much to Pastor John-David at New Heights Church for letting us be apart of the "Back to School" day once again, and we are scheduled to go there again next year on July 31. Our volunteers, Dr. Mark Argo and his assistant Christy, along with contract dentist Dr. William Gray and Peggy, ODF staff assistant, we donated almost $4,000 in dentistry and sent the children back to school with healthy smiles!

Dr. Mark Argo, Cathrine, and Christy. 

Cathrine had a broken front tooth and Dr. Argo used resin to give the tooth the appearance of being whole.

August 2, we were at another familiar location with the Mental Health Association of Tulsa at their Denver House site. MHAT has 17 location across Tulsa which provide homeless and mentally ill people a place to sleep, take classes or beat the heat. On that particular day, the temperature topped at 113 degrees - and man was it hot - inside the mobile dental unit and out! MHAT offers wonderful resources to those who need a place to stay cool in the summer and need a place to get back on their feet. We saw eight patients who were all adults and did $2,474.41 in donated dental care, which ranged from extractions to fillings and cleanings. Since we started working with MHAT in 2011, we have enjoyed our partnership immensely and always look forward to visiting their locations. Connally Perry, Administrator of Permanent Supported & Transitional Housing for MHAT, said even with services with the Mobile Dental Unit, accessing dental treatment is still one of the hardest to find services for their community.

We spent August 3 in Perkins with the Iowa Tribe Clinic - a partnership made possible by the Oklahoma City Inter Tribal Health Board. Thankfully, the temperatures were a little nicer to us that day and there were some clouds! On the way over a few sprinkles hit the windshield! Overall, the day ran very smoothly thanks to the on-site coordinator, Andrea, and her prep-work! We saw seven patients - children and adults - and did $1,863.86 in donated treatment.

Saturday, August 4, we were in Drumright working with Drumright Dental Center and their community-wide free dental day. Steve, the Community Coordinator and typical mobile unit driver, joined the group after being on a well-deserved vacation earlier that week. So, I headed back home while Steve took over.

As I'm sure many of you heard, outstretched wildfires affected that portion of Oklahoma (east and south of Stillwater) over the weekend. Luckily, the mobile unit was not in an evacuation area, so seven patients received  $6,009.23 in donated treatment inside the mobile dental unit along (the office opened up several of it's chairs to provide free services as well). However, we were able to see smoke, and on the way home were re-routed on the highways due to the grass fires.

Life on the mobile unit is never dull, so sometimes I look forward to being in the office after I come in from the road. That being said, this time things went very smooth, and I was able to interact with patients and their families to understand how much of a impact we make not only in people's mouths, but their overall health and lives. Being in the trenches where the care is provided and seeing smiles all around is such a wonderful feeling and gives a face to the work I do behind my desk everyday.

Susan Hoover
Program Relations Manager
shoover@okdf.org 

Lawton Dentists Donate Nearly $10k in Treatment to 37 Patients Partnering with Mobile Dental Unit

On June 30, the dental community of Lawton, combined with the efforts of the First Baptist Church, came together for a common cause: giving back. 

Four local dentists, two dental hygienists and two dental assistants donated their expertise to help those in need in Lawton. Drs. Phillip Aday, C. Todd Bridges, Wuse Cara and Joe Harris, hygienists Dawn Ferguson and April Ryswyk, and assistants Carole Griffin and Cassie Holton spent a combined effort of  24.25 hours treating 37 Patients in four chairs – two on the mobile unit, and two portable chairs provided by Dr. Aday.

By the end of the day, a total of $9,667 in free dental work was provided. Some volunteers are continuing further gratis treatment inside their offices, making sure the patient’s full oral health is addressed properly.

Dr. Aday, general dentist of Lawton and member of First Baptist, was on the planning committee for a huge community outreach week planned by the church every summer. The church was interested in providing services the surrounding community could not easily access due to time or resources. Dr. Aday contacted the Foundation to schedule the Mobile Unit in Lawton and recruited area dental professionals to volunteer.

The church’s week of giving consisted of several projects. Free home repairs and car washes for the surrounding community, which Dr. Aday identified as low-income, and many other services were provided by church members.

The culmination of the week consisted of several community services hosted at the church. Free haircuts, clothing and winter coat drive, free dental and medical treatment, among other services, were provided.

Dr. Aday spearheaded the dental project and volunteered to pre-screen and write up treatment plans for candidates three to four weeks prior. “Even though we have a monthly free extraction clinic in Lawton, there is no free clinic for restorative care here. The need is great,” Dr. Aday said.

As a volunteer at the extraction clinic, Dr. Aday has witnessed many people come to the clinic asking for teeth to be pulled when a filling would do the job. The patients would rather have a tooth extracted than pay out of pocket expenses for a filling without insurance, or even with SoonerCare. The mobile dental unit was able to address an access issue Lawton faces by providing free preventative and restorative care.

 “It was a true pleasure to provide care to those who can’t afford it,” said Dr. Bridges, a first time volunteer on the mobile dental unit. 

The volunteers and participating church members were very pleased with how the week of giving turned out, and will plan for next year. The day went better than planned, and they hope to host the mobile dental unit again. 

 “I would highly recommend volunteering on the mobile dental unit," said Dr. Aday. "You will probably come away pretty tired at the end of the day, but extremely blessed and gratified by the experience."

The Mobile Dental Unit will return to Lawton September 28 & 29 with the Comanche Nation

After some "down-time"  we are happy to have the Sound Bites blog back in action!

We will have much to talk about in the coming days but let us give you just a taste of some of the good:

In two days of free dental treatment on our mobile unit in McAlester, we saw 21 patients and did $5,790.64 in dental services to very deserving people. That averages to $263 worth of care provided to each person.  That's a great start to the weekend!

News and notes

Here's a new way to make money for the Mobile Dental Care Program!

Polly van der Glas from Melbourne, Australia is producing these works of art for sale. According to her website, human teeth are hard to come by. I'd say healthy human teeth are probably pretty hard to come by. Our mobile dental jewelry wouldn't look quite so...clean, and, well, caries free.

On a more cheerful note, here is a picture drawn by one of our happy customers!

Matt is now our official photographer

Staff member Matt Guffey is sending back some great pics from the panhandle area!

Notes from the Road

From Andy Ekdahl…

Photo by Matt Guffey

Well it's my 1st time to the panhandle in about two years and Matt's first time ever! So far, so good and we have two more days of treatment scheduled. I thought I'd let you know what's been going on! We had a 14+ hour day yesterday, working in Cherokee all day and then driving out to Guymon. This morning we finally got to see the northwestern part of Oklahoma called "The Panhandle" since the sun was down when we came in last night. One can’t help but travel back in your mind to a time when buffalo roamed freely out here, travel was done by horse and wagon and bandits were more than legends from long ago.

Photo by Matt Guffey

We were amazed with how much snow was left over from their snow storm two weeks ago that dumped around 20" of snow! The odd thing was that it seemed to be random where the snow remained: one field was dry and the neighboring field still covered. The really exciting thing? Two camels outlined against the horizon as we drove out to Boise City! That's right, camels. Last I checked those things live in Africa, India and Asia but there they were sharing the field with the buffalo! As we got further and further out here we saw herds of pronghorn and even a lone...wolf? I don't know, it seemed too grey to be a coyote, but who knows, it's Oklahoma!

On the Road...

So I'm on my way to Austin to look at some new mobile dental units. That's exciting. Except the weather in Texas is terrible and I'm stuck in Houston waiting for things to clear up in Dallas. It's all one big puzzle or game of chess.

Anyway, funny story. On my way out of Oklahoma I got stopped at security for having something suspicious in my carry on. I couldn't image what could possibly be suspicious until they pulled out a shade guide. I'd forgotten I had it in my computer bag. I don't even know why I had it in my computer bag.

I guess it does look a little weird, right there next to my Vitamin water and lame novel. They were pretty quick to understand what it is used for and that it wasn't dangerous. Actually, I think they were trying to impress the boss man who was passing through at the time and checking to make sure they were doing their job. They did. The world is now a little safer. And the security dude could use some bleach, judging by a quick comparison with the shade guide.

One exciting thing, other than getting to check out brand new mobile units in hopes of replacing the 5th wheel we just sold. This blog was nominated for a 2009 Okie Blog Award. If you have an Oklahoma blog or know someone who does, vote for us in the Best Business Related Blog category. Click here to see the voting guidelines. You must be an Oklahoma blogger to vote.