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| Vol. 23, No. 15 |
| August 15, 2001 |
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Taking it to the Streets By SHANNON RASP The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston The University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston will soon be "taking it to the streets," thanks to a grant from St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities that will allow the dental school to purchase and equip a van designed to provide mobile dental care in Houston's underserved communities.
The van, slated for completion this month, will be equipped with three dental examination chairs, instrument sterilization technology and radiology equipment. On-board staff will provide pediatric, adolescent, adult and geriatric dental care.
"We will be able to do everything in the van that we presently do in our clinics," said Dr. Ron Johnson, dean of the Dental Branch. "That includes filling teeth, pediatric sealants, emergency care for those experiencing oral pain, oral cancer screenings, treatment planning, prevention counseling, tooth care and hygiene, and dental education," he explained.
"The dental van is the result of a lot of hard work by people here at the Dental Branch and at St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities," said Dr. Johnson. "In 1999, St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities organized a meeting of all 18 not-for-profit mobile health service providers in the Houston area. This group, known as the Mobile Health Forum, identified a significant gap between community needs and available services in the area of general family dentistry, and this grant is just one result of that meeting. We are very pleased and proud of this opportunity to visit neighborhoods where some people have never seen a dentist in their lives, and we owe a debt of gratitude to St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities for enabling us to do so."
The dental van will be the 82nd outreach and care program initiated by the Dental Branch, which provides $725,000 in charity care a year to the local community. St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities, which was founded in 1997 as a separate component of St. Luke's Episcopal Health System, has awarded more than $36 million to more than 375 nonprofit programs throughout the Episcopal Diocese of Texas.
"We believe this new dental resource for Houston, which was unanimously recommended as a top priority by all 18 members of the Houston-area members of the Mobile Health Forum, will be invaluable in bringing services directly to adults and children," said Carla Cooper, executive director of St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities.
In addition to providing care, the van will also serve as a vehicle for collecting public health data. In a joint venture with St. Luke's Episcopal Health Charities and The University of Texas School of Public Health at Houston, the Dental Branch will gather data on specific community oral health needs throughout the Houston area.
"We are very interested in collecting public health data to determine the health needs of our community," said Janice P. Bilan, associate dean of planning and development at the Dental Branch. "There's almost no detailed data available on underserved populations, which hinders their opportunities for dental care."
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