Sean C. Morgan
The Tooth Taxi spent last week at Foster Elementary School, serving students from Foster and other local schools as part of the Dental Foundation of Oregon’s outreach to needy children.
According to the foundation, Oregon children have some of the worst oral health in the nation, and the number of children with untreated tooth decay has increased by 12 percent since the Tooth Taxi program started in 2008. Nearly 56 percent of children ages 6 to 8 have dental decay, and the number is significantly higher for low-income families.
The Tooth Taxi is a 38-foot motor home that has been customized into a high-tech dental office with two fully equipped operatory units that include digital X-rays.
With a full-time dentist and staff, the Tooth Tax visits schools throughout Oregon to treat uninsured and underserved children with limited access to dental care. It is scheduled to return to the district in February.
The Tooth Taxi stays at a school for up to a week at a time, providing comprehensive and preventive care to children. The second dental chair provides a platform for local dental professionals to volunteer in their communities.
“We do screenings, categorize the kids and start with the worst cases first,” said Becca Jordan, a dental assistant with the program. After screening students, students may receive fillings, stainless steal crowns, extractions, sealants and cleanings.
Many of the students she sees are insured by the Oregon Health Plan, Jordan said, but they don’t have dentists accepting patients available locally or parents have to work and cannot take their children to the dentist.
“There’s just not enough providers,” Jordan said.
Bruce Austin of Corvallis was the volunteer dentist last week. Normally, he said, he works on international medical teams.
He does part-time dentistry and massage and teaches at Chemeketa Community College part time when he’s not volunteering.
He has never served in a private practice, he said.
“It bugs me there aren’t more affordable private practices. We’re doing what we can to get care to the people who need it.”
He regularly volunteers at the Boys and Girls Club in Albany, he said. There he treats people who have no insurance. One day a week, volunteers do extractions on adults, and in the 2½ years he’s been doing it, there hasn’t been a day that wasn’t full.
When the Tooth Taxi returns in February, it will be open to all district students, said Catherine Johnson, a dental assistant. The schools send papers home with students for parents. Parents who want their children seen should fill out the paperwork and return it to the schools.
For more information, parents can contact district Health Services Coordinator Heidi Lewis at (541) 367-7114.
The Tooth Taxi is a partnership of the Oregon Education Association Choice Trust and the Dental Foundation of Oregon, the charitable arm of the Oregon Dental Association. It is funded by many of Oregon’s leading foundations, corporations and individuals.