Wood: Volunteer clinics help, but aren't the answer

Imagine not having regular access to good dental care. For shockingly large numbers of Virginians, it's not hard to imagine; it's the grim truth, and the problem is growing.

Good oral health is about much more than just a nice smile. The health of a person's mouth is a reflection of overall health. In addition to painful dental conditions, poor oral hygiene can lead to digestive problems and has been associated with poor diabetes control, miscarriage and pre-term birth, and even heart disease.

This is the time of year when we give thanks for our blessings, and I want to publicly thank the hundreds of Virginia dental professionals and VCU dental students, hygiene students and staff, along with the thousands of community volunteers who come together several times a year to provide free dental care to people in need.

Our free clinics are called Missions of Mercy (MOMs). They are essentially mobile dental field hospitals that provide free dental treatment to underserved populations without dental insurance or the financial means to access dental care. Often these clinics are carried out in rural communities where significant numbers of residents are indigent or among the working poor, elderly, disabled or uninsured. All routine services (cleanings, fillings and extractions) are provided at each of these projects. Denture services are even offered at some MOM events.

The first MOM project, in Wise County, in Virginia's remote southwestern corner, took place in July 2000, the inspiration of Dr. Terry Dickinson, executive director of the Virginia Dental Association. MOM Projects are sponsored by the Virginia Dental Association Foundation and received their initial funding from the Virginia Health Care Foundation. Volunteers pay their own expenses when they participate in a MOM project. Dental supplies are donated through the generosity of the Henry Schein Cares Program and equipment is purchased through support from a number of foundations and through public/private partnerships (Amerigroup, Virginia Department of Health-Dental Division, DentaQuest and Delta Dental of Virginia). Trucks to transport the supplies and equipment were obtained through grants from the Anthem Foundation and the MCV/VCU School of Dentistry Foundation. Our VDA Foundation leverages each of these donated dollars 32:1 in direct patient care.

Since the project started in 2000, dental associations in 19 other states have replicated the MOM model of public service. Collectively, the MOM projects in these 20 states have treated more than 125,000 patients, providing dental services valued at $60 million. Next year, MOM projects will be held in 25 states.

The most recent MOM event took place on Saturday, Nov. 5, in Emporia. From 8 a.m. until 5 p.m. the gymnasium at Greensville County High School was transformed into a 50-chair dental clinic. Volunteer dentists, hygienists, dental assistants, VCU dental and hygiene students and staff treated 427 patients and provided dental services valued at more than $300,000.

As they have before every MOM event (Emporia was the 56th in Virginia, and the seventh this year) people lined up for hours before sunrise to make sure they could receive help. The images of those lines haunt me and graphically illustrate a sad reality: Growing numbers of Virginians are forced to go without much-needed medical and dental care that many of us take for granted.

Even before the Great Recession put so many people out of paying jobs, the health care trends in Virginia were troubling. In late October, The Commonwealth Institute for Fiscal Analysis, a Richmond policy and research organization, reported that the number of Virginians not covered by health insurance now tops 1 million residents, about 14 percent of the population. Further, the uninsured rate in Virginia increased faster than the national average between 2000 and 2010.

Make no mistake, Missions of Mercy do make a very real contribution, and I am proud that the Virginia Dental Association Foundation is committed to helping underserved Virginians. But I also recognize that when a MOM project packs up and leaves town, the need for proper dental care in that locality does not disappear.

According to the American Dental Association, U.S. dentists provided some $2.6 billion in free or discounted care in one recent year alone. But the fact is, charity is not and never will be a health care system. Tens of millions of Americans, including as many as one-quarter of the nation's children, go without dental care every year. Children can't eat or sleep properly, can't pay attention in school, can't smile. Children and adults lose productivity. They suffer low-self-esteem when untreated disease mars their appearance. Visible dental disease makes finding a good job even more difficult.

There are no easy answers to providing care to the people suffering with untreated disease, especially in this economy. Medicaid and other "safety net" programs that provide care to these populations are struggling for funding to provide the needed care, even as more people need them. But there are ways to help end what then-Surgeon General David Satcher called a "silent epidemic" of oral disease: prevention and education. Virtually all dental disease is preventable, and if more people understood the simple, inexpensive ways to do this, the burden of disease could be reduced exponentially.

Dentists alone cannot solve this problem. But we can lead toward solutions. In addition to donating our services, we can bang the drum — because silence is the enemy. The Virginia Dental Association and its member dentists are committed to breaking that silence and ending the silent epidemic. As proud as I am of our Missions of Mercy, I look forward to the day when they become obsolete.