By: Chris Casterline
My name is Chris Casterline and I’m a general dentist in central Kentucky. I currently direct a mobile dental outreach program at a Federally Qualified Health Center, serving over 20 elementary schools.
The schools we target are deemed “Tier 1” schools. To be eligible for this designation, over 50% of their students must qualify for free or reduced-fee lunch.
Most of the children we see have Medicaid, with the remaining falling under our “sliding fee scale,” in which case we do not charge a fee for the services provided.
When the school year starts, the children are given a written consent form to have their parents sign and return. This consent allows us to do all facets of dentistry, including exams, preventative treatment, restorative treatment, and extractions.
After collecting all the consent forms, we begin going to the schools.
Dental Mobile Outreach Team
In addition to myself, one hygienist, and one dental assistant, we have a clerk/care coordinator on the mobile unit with us.
Our clerk/care coordinator contacts all the parents before and after the children are seen, explaining what we plan to do and what our findings were.
She also follows up on referrals, as our goal is that all the kids will establish a dental home and complete their treatment plan (if we are unable to complete it on the mobile).
About Our Dental Mobile Outreach Unit
Our Mobile Unit has:
- Two dental chairs with two monitors for viewing radiographs (we use a Nomad to take the radiographs)
- Waiting room area with iPads and games (seats 4 kids)
- TVs above each chair for the kids to watch movies during treatment
- Desk/workspace area
- Clerk’s desk area
- Microwave
- Refrigerator
- Wheelchair ramp
We hired an independent contractor with a CDL to move it from school to school.
Our Findings During our Dental Mobile Outreach Care
At the end of each day, I spend my time completing administrative tasks and compiling data.
Pre-Covid (2019 – 2020), we identified:
- ~50% of the kids had active dental decay
- ~6% having “urgent needs” (symptomatic decay, infection, or rampant decay)
We did not provide mobile services in 2020 – 2021 due to Covid.
Post-Covid (in 2021 – 2022), we identified:
- Over 75% of the kids had active dental decay
- Over 10% having “urgent needs”
We attribute this to the fact that we did not provide care during the Covid year. Many of the children face significant barriers to care – transportation being the most influential.
By not bringing the dentist to them, they were unable to receive the care they needed.
The Mission of Dental Mobile Outreach
Our main goals are to complete as much preventative and urgent care as possible and then to complete simple restorative work with any additional time we have.
In 2021-22, we were able to complete 94% of treatment planned cleanings/fluoride, 88% of sealants, and 72% of urgent needs procedures.
In addition, 31 quadrants of restorative work and 129 treatment plans were completed.
I’m happy to answer any questions about mobile dentistry. I can be reached at ccasterlinedmd@gmail.com.
Photo by MM Dental
