Mobile dental unit spreads healthy smiles among area children

To date, the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile also know as the Tooth Truck has provided dental care for 773 children. According to the latest statistics available from the Ronald McDonald House, which run from the program's July 8 beginning through Nov. 25, 743 of those children were treated aboard the mobile dental unit, and 30 of them with more serious issues were treated in an operating room setting.

There is one dentist who works full-time on the mobile unit, and another dentist who works part time, primarily handling pre-op appointments on the truck and then in the operating room with those patients, said Bonnie Keller, president and CEO of Ronald McDonald House Charities Inc.

"We can't fully sedate any kids on the truck, and some kids just require complete sedation due to the severity of their problems," Keller said. Surgeries are done at Springfield Surgery Center, CoxHealth or wherever there is available operating room space, Keller added.

The mobile dental unit provides treatment for children who are on Medicaid but who may have trouble getting to a dentist. The age range of patients being treated on the Tooth Truck is from infancy to the teen years. However, Keller said, the unit is focusing its efforts primarily on children in the second and sixth grades.

"We knew that we had many more kids who needed help than what we could provide, so we kind of had to decide on a priority of what we wanted to do," Keller said. "The reason (we focus on those grades) is because those are two very critical times in a child's life when they need to have dental care and they need to have prevention education. It's just in the formation of their teeth at those particular ages where it's extremely critical that there's intervention."

Working with school nurses at local schools is a key element of the Tooth Truck being able to help children, Keller said.

"They have a screening program at the schools, (besides) ours, and the school nurses have already identified the kids who need the most help, and so for us to try and reinvent that wheel is just not necessary," she added.

The dental unit provides care onsite at the Springfield Public Schools that have been designated as Caring Communities Schools.

Other children are served through Boys & Girls Clubs of Springfield and Springfield Head Start. Keller said parental consent is always obtained before treatment is given.

Community support for the Tooth Truck and the dental care it provides is vital. Keller said that the dental unit does receive some funding from Medicaid reimbursements, but she said that only contributes about 35 percent of the budget.

From July 8 to Nov. 25, the mobile dental unit provided a total of $313,982 worth of care, both on the truck and in the operating room. Of that, 89 percent, or $280,314, was billed to Medicaid, and $99,955 in Medicaid reimbursements was received. The rest of the funding comes from donations.

Other support comes in the form of volunteers. Keller said a great deal of what the mobile dental unit does is to provide preventive care and education. She said local Junior League members are providing the majority of volunteer staff on the truck.

"What those people do is they actually go to the classroom for the child to take them for their appointment. But their first stop is in the school nurse's office, and they are given all their dental supplies, and they go over the appropriate way to brush your teeth, and try to develop kind of a short-term little friendship there," she said.