Success Stories

On The Road Again: A Tooth Taxi Update

by Mary Daly, Program Manager, Tooth Taxi
Update Number 23 | 6/15/09 | Independence

There will be two events this summer that will bring the Tooth Taxi full circle - the first was our visit to the Oregon Child Development Coalition (OCDC) site in Independence where we did our first treatment last year and the second will be our Tooth Taxi booth at OASBO (Oregon Association of School Business Officials) conference in July.

Cecilia Easdale our site coordinator at Independence was very prepared for our visit. Cecilia hosted the Tooth Taxi last year on its first trial run in September. Cecilia was ready for a second run and ensured we had plenty of kids for our oral health assessment; she included siblings from the Center’s program and children from the community. Two short articles ran in the Salem Statesman Journal prior to our visit and lunches were provided for us daily by local businesses or the OCDC center. Last September we were a convoy headed to Independence - Jason Bowen from ADI joined us and Rebecca Lanxon from DAISY, our software management program, joined us as well. We had a lot of new equipment and processes to test and our first time out we were a bit green about what we were doing. What a difference a year makes! Last year we screened 17 children and treated for two days. This year we screened 127 children and treated for four days. We did end up with a visit from Jason this year as those pesky drain holes on the air conditioner were still providing the occasional shower in the back operatory. With some additional holes drilled we think we'll be dry for the summer.

Dr. Steven Deming

Dr. Tom Davis

Dr. Heringer headed out for vacation on Friday with his family while two volunteer dentists from Dallas joined us on the Tooth Taxi. Dr. Steven Deming and Dr. Tom Davis. We had a visit from Justin Much from the Salem Statesman Journal on Friday. Justin is a patient of Dr. Davis and was surprised to see his dentist on the Tooth Taxi.

Dr. Davis and Justin

Read the Printed article from the Salem Statesman Journal

On Wednesday I joined representatives from ODS to attend a luncheon at COAXIS which is an ODS insured group. COAXIS a software development and management company in SE Portland, they invited their business partners to join them for lunch and gave them the opportunity to do a short presentation about current happenings within their organizations. It was a treat to introduce the Tooth Taxi to a group that was not familiar with it. The group was curious to see the Tooth Taxi and I invited them to join us for a volunteer stint. It’s great to be able to extend our story to new audiences outside the dental profession. It’s also a way to encourage the audience to share the Tooth Taxi program with their dentists.

Independence stats:

127 students screened
51 students treated in the van
$35,126 value of free dental services provided.

Summary
Tooth Taxi, September 2008 - June 19, 2009

3420 students screened
359 students received oral hygiene education in the classroom
1240 students treated in the van
$799,195 value of free dental services provided.

Next week on the road:
MESD (Multnomah Educational Service District) Summer Migrant Program at Reynolds Middle School in Fairview.

Next week’s recap:
Oregon Child Development Coalition (OCDC) in Cornelius.

Regards, Mary