A committee of Chicago dental professionals and DePaul students are attempting to raise $5,000 in the next two weeks to begin funding the Mobile Plaque Punisher, a van functioning as a dental office on wheels, which will provide dental care to children living in impoverished areas of Chicago.The National Center for Health Statistics reports that between 2001 and 2004, 31.5 percent of children ages 6-19 living below 100 percent of the poverty level had untreated cavities.
The campaign team has calculated that it will cost $100,000 to turn the Mobile Plaque Punisher into a reality. To meet their goal, the team is attempting to raise the $5,000 through the fundraising website thepoint.com. Dr. Davey Turok, one of the professionals involved said the campaign has currently collected just under $4,000 in three weeks from online and cash donations.
Turok, a dental practitioner in Chicago and Evanston, with experience in outreach dentistry, and hygienist Evita Sanchez-Rios are leading the campaign that also includes DePaul public relations and communications graduate students and pre-dental students. Turok said, “It is indescribable how gratifying it is to be able to utilize a professional skill to help those that otherwise couldn’t have received help.”
“Depending on our funding capabilities, the possibilities are really endless,” says Turok, who anticipates the van containing one or two dental chairs equipped to provide procedures ranging from cleaning to extractions. The Mobile Plaque Punisher will be operated by a rotation of volunteer dentists, hygienists, assistants and administrators with a team of a dentist and/or hygienist operating the van at any one time.
DePaul junior biology major Alexis Omer works on the Mobile Plaque Punisher campaign and with Dr. Turok at Evanston Dental Associates. Omer said, “I was extremely inspired by the idea of a mobile dental van that could provide free dental care to under-served people across the country.”
Volunteer interest, need and funding will determine how often the van is used. The campaign coordinators are still looking into possibilities of costs for patients of the Mobile Plaque Punisher, but Turok hopes to make the service as inexpensive as possible. “We have talked about the possibility of accepting Medicaid for those that have it. Otherwise, it would hopefully be free,” he said.
“Children are often victims of circumstance. It is not their fault they can’t afford dental treatment,” Turok says. “It is important that we educate and prevent early so that children establish good habits for the rest of their lives. It is far easier to prevent a cavity than to fix it, far cheaper too.” He adds that cavities are the biggest concern with children and can lead to infection if untreated.
Jacqueline Sauseda, office manager of Downtown Dental in Chicago, worked as an assistant at the UIC post-grad pediatric dental clinic for seven years. Sauseda said dental care for children is essential for oral health and potentially saves patients thousands of dollars down the road. Sauseda said routine dental check-ups are important because dental issues can occur very rapidly.
According to Turok, donations and sponsorships will be vital to sustained long-term funding for the Mobile Plaque Punisher. “We will most likely count on dental suppliers and companies to keep us stocked with supplies and equipment.”
While the van will start out operating in Chicago, Turok hopes increased funding through large grants and sponsorships as well as a future campaign to get 1,000 dental professional to each donate $100 will allow the campaign to expand its services throughout the state of Illinois and eventually the United States. “That is the beauty of a mobile dental van: We can bring the dentistry to them.”
The outreach dentistry experience includes projects in both Jamaica and Virginia. In Virginia, “hundreds of people would line up at 3 a.m. for a chance to be seen. It was unbelievable how appreciative these people were. They couldn’t afford dental work or didn’t have access to care anywhere else, so they had to live in pain,” Turok says.
Turok learned the difficulty of setting up and taking down dental units in the Virginia project. “A van with permanent dental chairs that could travel to various under-served areas seemed more logical and efficient,” Turok says. Sanchez-Rios, who is working on her Masters degree in public health, was a “moving force toward educating me on the specific need in various parts of Illinois.”
Sanchez-Rios and Turok’s mutual interest in outreach dentistry led them to create a proposal for the Pepsi Refresh project, an initiative that funds community minded programs. Their campaign for a mobile dental van for the $250,000 Pepsi Refresh prize was aided by a local advertising agency and DePaul students, but was unsuccessful in winning the funding.
“Although we did not win the Pepsi contest, based on the amazing response to our campaign, we decided we could continue the effort,” says Turok. “Whitney Neal, one of the DePaul students who helped with the Pepsi campaign, brought a team of fellow public relations and communications graduate students to join the committee. Alexis Omer and Katie Kupczyk, pre-dental students at DePaul also joined.”
“Moving forward, we are planning to recruit a few more individuals to help with strategic planning and fundraising,” says Turok.