Mobile Smiles Oklahoma dental units to provide free dental care
OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) - For people who can’t get to or afford the dentist, it can now come to you at no cost with the Mobile Smiles Oklahoma dental clinics that are set to make their way all across the Sooner State.
Four of the units will be in the four quadrants of the state while one will travel between Oklahoma City and Tulsa.
"It is with a great deal of pride, a tremendous amount of joy that I get to declare the first mobile dental clinic under the ARPA Project is open,” Oklahoma Dental Foundation Executive Director John Wilguess said.
They’re dental help on the go. A peek inside of the mobile unit Thursday showed two operating rooms equipped with chairs, sinks, lights, storage and much more that can provide about $5,000 worth of dental services per day.
"All of it is free to the patients,” Wilguess said.
Each unit will have a professional dental team to provide X-rays, perform exams, cleanings, fillings, extractions and more. The project was funded by $5 million in COVID relief money given to the Oklahoma Dental Foundation last year. Mobile Smiles Oklahoma is their collaborative program with other organizations and their plan is to send mobile clinics to areas of the state where there is the most need.
"This is but a small and mighty representation of what Oklahoma really is all about, which is coming together and helping those in need," attorney and Emerge interim Executive Director Ginny Bass Carl said.
In 2023, mobile smiles Oklahoma visited nearly 150 sites across the state and provided $600,000 worth of dental work to 1,300 people. Most of those patients lived in households with annual incomes of less than $20,000. Organizers said they want to help even more in 2024.
"Now we're going to be able to provide five times that amount as each of these clinics rolls off the assembly line over the rest of this year,” Wilguess said.
The mobile units are estimated to serve over 260,000 Oklahomans throughout the process.