Support the work of NCMOM and other efforts to deliver dental care to the underserved by watching and sharing this Inspired story.

At every North Carolina Missions of Mercy clinic, I notice the long line of patients who waited outside through the night, no matter the weather. These patients are from all walks of life. Most did not choose to avoid dental care; it was simply never a choice they could make. They come hoping for a chance to smile again, and so we come, bringing an army of volunteers, dental professionals and equipment, hoping to rebuild those smiles and change lives.

The North Carolina Missions of Mercy (NCMOM) is a mobile dental clinic that offers free dental care to those in financial need who have few other treatment options. NCMOM operates under the N.C. Dental Society and N.C. Dental Health Fund with the goal of providing care to as many under served North Carolinians as is possible and involving as much of the state’s dental community in treating those patients as is possible. Estimates place the number of under served in our state at more than one million, and access to dental care in many areas of North Carolina can be physically and financially out of reach to many residents.

My first experience with NCMOM in 2009 motivated me to be a part of this mission. Before visiting a clinic, I was unaware of the numbers of people in need of dental treatment and access to care. I was also unaware of the dental community’s united effort to help those in need and address this problem through projects like NCMOM. Their coordinated efforts and dedication to serve have inspired my own path to dentistry, which begins this fall as I start my first year of dental school at the UNC School of Dentistry.

NCMOM holds 12 clinics annually, serving patients from the mountains to the sea. Patients’ reasons for putting off dental care varies, but they always take the time to remind us that our event is a blessing—a gift that helps them smile again. Each year as we return to certain areas, local volunteers notice the growth in the event. We bring more equipment, more dentists, more volunteers, all in an attempt to help more patients. As the need continues to grow, so does NCMOM.

One dynamic factor in growth of the clinics’ success came from the mobile X-ray unit provided by a BCBSNC Foundation grant. The X-Ray bus allows NCMOM to perform a digital panoramic X-Ray on each patient for use in the clinic’s dental triage and treatment areas. With this advancement, volunteer dentists are able to efficiently and safely address patients’ immediate needs. Having this equipment also allows dentists to better treat previously undiagnosed issues of which patients may not even be aware.

With the help of hundreds of dentists, hygienists, assistants, dental students and community volunteers, NCMOM was able to treat more than 8200 patients in 2011. We hope to inspire more members of the dental community to help us provide services and continue to spread smiles throughout the state in the coming year.

Inspired to lend a hand at an NCMOM event? Please visit ncdental.org/ncds/NCMOM.asp

Like most of us in the dental profession, I went to school expecting to associate and then eventually open a private practice in my hometown of Long Beach, Calif. During my years in dental school, “public health dentistry” was basically the health department, and many times it seemed to be what someone considered when there was no other place to go.

My career with the U.S. Public Health Service greatly changed that outlook, and I had the opportunity to witness oral health care delivery throughout the country as well as in industrialized and third world countries. As a result, I have spent the last 22 years working full-time clinically in North Carolina’s Community Health Centers (CHCs), treating almost exclusively those who are at or below 200% of the federal poverty guidelines. Our patients pay a reduced fee, and we are helped by grants and donations that cover about 30% of our budget.

Over the past few years, many of the country’s CHC dental programs have evolved into modern, efficient, high-tech, comprehensive oral health care programs working hard to meet the area’s many needs for adults and children. Dentists in the centers are well paid with good benefits, including extensive continuing education. In our center in eastern North Carolina, we have more than 15,000 patients, and we are in a constant learning environment. Young dentists join us and are exposed to complex oral surgery, endodontics, removable and fixed prosthetics, implants, orthodontics, and pediatric dentistry. Our private practice colleagues are supportive of our efforts, and we work closely with the two schools of dentistry in North Carolina.

At the National Network of Oral Health Access (NNOHA) Conference last October in Washington, D.C., the courses were packed with young and mid-career CHC dentists from throughout the country learning about practice management, leadership, grant writing, community programs, IT, and all phases of clinical dentistry. There was one CHC dental program there from Gaston County, N.C., whose ambitious school program was honored for achieving the goal of making all the children at one of the county’s elementary schools virtually caries free.

At this time, only 66 of North Carolina’s nearly 4,200 dentists work in these settings. Yet the need is overwhelming, here and in many communities across the country. We have a “call-in day” each month to accept 50 new comprehensive treatment patients, and we normally get 400 calls in the first two hours. We can use more centers like ours, and we can use more dentists like the ones working with us. While it might take a while for the image of “public health dentistry” to change, it’s grown into a viable and substantive option for many dentists, whether for a few years or as a career.

Personally, I cannot imagine a more challenging, vital, satisfying, and enjoyable career choice than working with a Community Health Center. To many of us, this is the most appealing part of the work — if these patients did not get this work done, in this setting, at these reduced fees, they would not get the work done. They have no other place to go.

The vision and goals of these programs naturally work toward making a difference in thousands of lives. For those of us who work with these programs, that vision helps to make us better oral health professionals and, at the same time, better people.