Nearly 12 years ago, a nonprofit centered on substance abuse prevention in Lyon County, Nev., broadened its services to dental care.
Leaders with the Healthy Communities Coalition were shocked into action after two of their food pantry volunteers used pliers to pull each other’s abscessed teeth. The volunteers saw no other option to relieve their overwhelming pain in the small town where they lived, 40 miles southeast of Reno, because of a dearth of dental care providers.
That drastic act, said Wendy Madson, executive director for the coalition, prompted her organization to use mobile clinics to offer health and dental services in rural communities where there aren’t enough patients to support brick-and-mortar offices.
The coalition now sends a van outfitted with dental equipment to county schools to treat hundreds of students per stop a few times each year. They also host events providing free care for adults in the region. The response has been overwhelming.
“Dental is the hot ticket,” Madson said. “Everybody wants dental. Availability of those services is what runs out first in those large mobile events.”
The coalition’s mobile programs mirror efforts nationwide to dispatch services to patients experiencing gaps in the health care system, especially in rural areas.
Rural residents face more significant health care provider shortages, including dentists, compared with their counterparts in larger cities. Since the beginning of the pandemic, mobile clinics have increased access to a range of services in hard-to-reach places with sparse populations.
Source: Clinics on wheels bring doctors and dentists to health care deserts / WFDD