ON-SITE DENTAL CARE FOUNDATION INC
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Mission Statement
On-Site Dental Care Foundation’s mission is to provide low or no cost oral health services and education to those with little or no access to dental services via a mobile dental practice. Target populations include homeless, undocumented immigrants, low income seniors, and low income families. We provide services without regard to ability to pay, race, sexual orientation, or any other distinguishing factor.
About This Cause
On-Site Dental Care Foundation provides free or low cost, comprehensive oral health services and education to those with little or no access to dental care. Our services are provided via a mobile clinic that locates in areas identified as having health disparities per the public health department. Our organization partners with other community organizations that serve our target populations in order to address the barriers to accessing services. Our target populations include homeless, low-income seniors, low-income immigrants and others who have no dental insurance and little access to care. Our services include, exams, xrays, cleanings, fillings, extractions, root canals, crowns, and dentures (both partials and full). On-Site is not there just to provide services for a one-time fix, but we work to establish On-Site as a dental home for our patients. Recall appointments are scheduled at 3, 4 or 6 month intervals depending on patient's perio status. A vital part of our services includes oral health education. For one to have good overall health, one must have good oral health. Oral health kits and education are provided by a grant from Kaiser Foundation. We currently have 4 practices operating consistently - on Mondays we are in Mt.View/Sunnyvale at the Columbia Neighborhood Community Center, on Tuesdays we are in Gilroy at St. Mary's Church, and on Saturday and Sunday we are in San Jose at 2400 Moorpark Avenue. During COVID we remained opened and operational for emergency only procedures, as our target populations are the ones that generally end up in the local hospital emergency rooms with dental emergencies. Our goal was to be available and keep them out of the emergency room so those hospital resources could be available for the COVID patients. In 2020, the San Jose Business Journal selected On-Site Dental Care Foundation as a Impact Organization for the San Jose community for our work before, during and after COVID. Post COVID shutdown, we saw an increase of number of individuals seeking our services due to layoffs, and hour reductions. Last year we provided services to 1,520 unduplicated individuals. This was accomplished with just 3 dental chairs and operating 6 days a week. One recent success story was one of our homeless patients. He has been living in his car for a couple of years. He is in his early 50's and when he presented at On-Site for services, he required multiple extractions and fillings. Through the course of his treatment oral health education was presented each visit, and educational brochures provided. When he first began services, his oral hygiene was at a Level 4 which is the worst oral hygiene level, it means bleeding and receding gums, heavy plaque on teeth, extreme sensitivity, and a long term outlook of loosing most of his teeth. This patient even though his living conditions were not conducive for making changes to his oral hygiene, accomplished moving from a Level 4 to a Level 1, which is pristine oral hygiene. With the restorations and his improved oral hygiene his long term outcomes have significantly improved. He attributes his ability to succeed at this improvement to the constant oral health education provided and the oral health kits that were made available by the Oakland A's. Another moving story is a single mother in her 30's that presented with 2 missing front teeth that were lost during a trauma 7 years prior. The young lady would keep her head bent forward when talking with someone and would not smile. She said she thought she would never be able to replace those teeth due to the cost. The day we delivered the denture that replaced those missing teeth, she broke out into tears when she looked into the mirror, and then she smiled a big, beautiful smile. She continues to come to regular dental appointments for cleanings and checkups, and she is still smiling. On-Site Dental Care Foundation was addressing issue such as social justice, racial disparities and economic mobility long before they became the mantra's of philanthropic giving. 85% of On-Site patients are Latinx, 45% are from the LBGQT community, 25% are homeless, and 15% are low income seniors. A story that demonstrates how oral health can impact economic mobility come from one of our homeless patients. He presented missing 6 front teeth. The patient related that it was very hard to get a job with his teeth in their present state, due to bias with hiring officials, and his own insecurities and low self esteem he felt due to the missing teeth. On-Site replaced the missing teeth with partials. Immediately the patient was smiling again. Three months later the patient returned for a denture adjustment and was very excited to tell us that he had secured a full time job, and had moved to some transitional housing. Another patient worked in hospitality at a back of the house job due to the fact that his teeth were a mess. We replaced the broken, decayed teeth with dentures. This patient continues to come for regular gum checks, and adjustments. He was recently promoted to a front of the house supervisory position.