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Tricia Counts lives near the Southwest Virginia town of Hays. During the summer, she drove an hour to Wise County to have her teeth cleaned.
“Just recently, I got an estimate from a dentist in the area; they wanted $300 just to clean up,” Counts said. “And I wasn’t going to pay that. I couldn’t pay that.”
Counts traveled to Wise because this year, as every year since July 2000, the Virginia Dental Association Foundation is hosting a Mission of Mercy project. The event helps address the needs of thousands of Virginians who are unable to receive dental care.
Dr. Terry Dickinson, former executive director of the Virginia Dental Association, created the program to provide free, high-quality dental care.
For Counts, the challenge is not only the cost of dental procedures, but also the lack of health care options in her area.
“We had a very good dentist right in Haysi, but he retired,” Counts said. “So I just haven’t been able to find a dentist I like since.”
According to a study by the Healthy Appalachia Institute, people living in Southwest Virginia face numerous barriers when it comes to oral health care — lack of providers, poverty, lack of dental insurance, difficulty accessing care, untreated dental disease and availability limited use of fluoridated water.
Another challenge is the limited number of providers who accept patients with Medicare or Medicaid.
VDAF’s Mission of Mercy project allows people with income or insurance limitations to be directed to their free on-site dental care events. The MOM project offers patients preventive, restorative and surgical dental treatments.
VDAF Executive Director Tara Quinn knows what it’s like to not have access to dental care. So the mission feels personal to him.
“To see the extent of suffering that comes from not being able to have oral health care – the pain, the impact on overall health, the impact on the ability to apply for a job or hold a job to focus on school for the children that are in pain,” Quinn said. “I mean, it’s so far. And I feel so grateful to be able to be a small part of the solution.”
The Mission of Mercy Project has volunteers—such as faculty and students at the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry and practicing dentists—from across the state.
Dr. Elizabeth Reynolds traveled nearly six hours from Richmond to Wise to run triage, which is the first stop for patients coming to the MOM project. She has been helping since the events began in 2000.
“We know that oral health affects every aspect of our lives,” Reynolds said. “We forget that people who cannot live with healthy oral health do not have healthy overall health.”
Reynolds said that in addition to social determinants, fear and embarrassment also keep people away from the dentist’s office.
“People judge you without teeth,” Reynolds said. “So if you can take these people, give them the confidence they need and help them restore their smile, you can change their lives. And we do it every day. We do it here. And I’ll be honest, I think dentists do that every day in our offices.”
This year, at the Wise County MOM event, VDAF reached a milestone. The group said it has given $50 million in donated care since 2000 to Virginians.
VPM News Focal Point airs on VPM PBS Thursdays at 8 p.m
