Success Stories
On The Road Again: A Tooth Taxi Update
by Mary Daly, Program Manager, Tooth Taxi
Update Number 12 | 3/30/09 | Sisters of the Road and the ODC
The Tooth Taxi took an unusual turn for service when we parked at Sisters of the Road Café in Old-town Portland on Monday and Tuesday March 30th and 31st.
Sisters non-profit café serves low cost, hot, nutritious meals that can be purchased in a variety of ways, including with cash, food stamps, meal coupons or in exchange for work. Sisters caters to the homeless population, emphasizing non-violence and gentle personalism.
I sit on Sisters Community Development Council, where my role is to introduce Sisters and their mission to the community. Dr. Ten Pas and I met with Sisters Executive Director Monica Beemer a couple of years ago when the mobile dental van was in the conceptual stages, and talked about possibly visiting Sisters. With that idea, ODS’ support of Sisters and some time in Portland (pre-dental convention) is how we ended up at the Café instead of a school. Twelve PCC hygiene students provided cleanings to 31 patients valued at $5,208. The students were overseen by adjunct faculty Dr. Weston W. Heringer, Jr. Instructor Cara Kao-Young and RDH Heidi Jo Grubbs also provided cleanings.
When we are at the schools all the kids apprehensively ask “You’re not going to pull my tooth are you?” At Sisters all the adults knocking on the door wanted to know if we could pull a tooth that was bothering them. The second most frequently asked question was for denture cream. For all those requesting dental treatment we handed out the dental resource brochure put out by the Portland Assistance League.
The Sisters community was very appreciative of their cleanings, as one patient stated: “appreciate the cleaning, took care of them (teeth) my whole life, haven’t been able to afford getting cleaned, worried about them.” This population does not have a lot of options and many suffer from mental illness. Our visit was a positive experience for the patients and good for Tooth Taxi staff and volunteers to gain exposure and a better understanding of the homeless community.For more information on Sisters and their programs visit their website: http://www.sistersoftheroad.org
One idea to help the schools identify advocates to prepare for the Tooth Taxi visit is to pull from the Retired Teachers Association. They had a booth at the Assembly as well and were willing to hand out and collect volunteer forms from retirees interested in helping with the Tooth Taxi when in their school district. We received an enthusiastic response from potential volunteers.
Our visit was organized by Sisters social work interns from PSU, Katie & Katherine. PCC hygiene students that volunteered at Sisters: Miranda Duncan, Nicole Pegues, Shakiba Safari, Michele Davidson, Kira Melan, Randi Petty, Atsuko Magnuson, Jennifer Hill, Yelena Svintsitskiy, Miranda Schmidt, Sayaka Chujo, and Famie Santillian-Chin.
Doug Porter from Metro Rotary visited the Tooth Taxi while at Sisters.
Tooth Taxi stats:
The numbers from the Sisters site visit were included in last week’s 1st quarter stats, so there is no change in the overall numbers.
- 1853 Students received oral health screening assessment
- 359 Students received oral hygiene instruction in the classroom
- 797 Students treated in the van
- $514,845 Value of free dental services provided
Oregon Dental Convention (ODC)
Regards, Mary
