(Editor’s note: As of Tuesday, Dec. 4, 2018, NonDoc has cancelled its subscription to a service that hosted the images previously embedded below. To view those images, click here.)
Of the many sentiments I heard from patients at the 2017 Oklahoma Mission of Mercy event, the event’s complicated yet smooth operation impressed attendees the most.
While those comments were mostly left out of my deep-dive into the world of MASH-style dental care, I wanted to touch on them in this post, which features 360-degree photos and video from OKMOM’s Woodward event.
For the 360 video above: Click play and then use either the mouse or the navigation arrows within the video to manipulate the perspective and explore the space. Click here if it looks weird
For the 360 images below: If you have a Google Cardboard or some other virtual-reality headset, you can click the three dots in the upper-right of each image and select VR mode. Otherwise, just use the mouse (for desktop/laptop) or your fingers (for mobile devices) to scroll around the virtual spaces and zoom in and out.
‘It’s fascinating’
“I have never seen something so organized,” said Debbie Anderson of Perryton, Texas. “It’s fascinating just watching it. They’ve got it down to an art.”
Anderson was in awe of OKMOM’s efficiency, and her comments reminded me that, if you’d never seen an event like this before, it’s an impressive spectacle.
Pulling teeth in oral surgery
In the above photo, Oklahoma Dental Association president Dr. Edmund Braly speaks with another dentist in oral surgery. Oral surgeons are typically the most efficient and experienced teeth-pulling docs in the world.
Operating in front of Braly was Dr. Jeff Pierce, whose father had worked with the patient he was seeing.
Hygiene visits every six months
If you learned in my OKMOM article that dental cavities (dental caries) are mostly preventable, then you probably realize that an ounce of prevention is better than a mess of fillings or extractions.
To that end, dental hygienists should be your friend. While they are required by law to work under a dentist, they have their own years of training, continuing education and specialties that can keep patients’ mouths healthy.
In the OKMOM hygiene area, volunteers scaled, cleaned and attempted to provide some education about good oral health.
Quality controls
What’s the most important area of a large-scale free dental clinic?
That would be sterilization, usually tucked away in a corner where foot traffic is light. The volunteers who staff the sterilization area are unsung heroes, scrubbing trays and instruments and even running intermittent tests on autoclaves to meet high safety standards.
