VCU news

By Leslie Nelson
University News Services

Representatives from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Dentistry recently teamed up with the Virginia Dental Association through the New Orleans Mission of Mercy project to provide free dental care to the residents of New Orleans.

Four VCU students along with Dr. Carol Brooks, associate professor in the School of Dentistry, and several VCU alumni, joined about 500 other health care professionals from around the country to take part in the Katrina Mission of Mercy project earlier this month.

“Our goal is to remind New Orleans and its surrounding residents that we are here to help them in any way we can,” said Jared Hoover, a third-year VCU School of Dentistry student. “We want to help resolve their medical and dental concerns so they can return to their normal lives again.”

This year’s MOM project focused on the victims of Hurricane Katrina and took place at the New Orleans Audubon Zoo, where dental volunteers provided a variety of services ranging from fillings and extractions to cleanings. The patients were seen on a first-come, first-serve basis.

“Many people in the area are still displaced from their normal lives,” said Hoover. “We’ve driven through deserted neighborhoods with collapsed houses, partially buried cars, downed trees, neighborhoods without a single street sign in sight, but while at the MOM project, we’ve been able to take the time to individually ask people, ‘how we can help?’”

The MOM project offered victims of Hurricane Katrina access to dental care that was unavailable due to the damage sustained by medical facilities in and around the city. According to event organizers, there were approximately 4,000 dental patients, which included uninsured, underinsured and temporary residents.

“The New Orleans event is slightly different in that the patients aren’t just deprived financially,” said Nathan Houchins, a third-year VCU School of Dentistry student. “There are a lot of patients without means to dental care, but an abundant amount of patients are simply without a practicing dentist.”

The Mission of Mercy project was launched in Virginia in 2000 as a response to the lack of access to care for individuals in underserved areas. Virginia’s MOM projects have broken records in the number of patients treated at respective projects by providing free dental care to more than 14,000 patients with a monetary value of over $5 million. The project also has been adopted by other states as a model for their state dental missions.