Mission of Mercy

This past Friday and Saturday our school teamed up with an organization call Mission of Mercy. MOM was a free dental clinic that was open to anyone. There was no background or financial screening of any kind. I saw people of every age, race, and social class. People camped overnight to get in line for this. Our medical students helped in the triage area. Patients had to be screened for high blood pressure, glucose tests, etc. before they were seen by the dentists.

This event was incredible and there is such a need in our state. 904 people were seen in triage on Friday; 956 people on Saturday. After patients were seen in triage, they were taken to the dental floor. After having dental work done they were led through a booth area. I volunteered at the medical school booth. We handed out preventative health brochures, bandaids, and had a smoking cessasation area set up. People could see a good heart vs. a bad heart and a good lung vs. a bad lung (real cadaver body parts). The kids loved this. Then the patients were led to the pharmacy for free prescriptions if needed for pain. They completed a quick survey and then were free to go. It was controlled chaos! Such an amazing thing to be a part of!
Ty working in triage.

The dental work area was divided into different sections: surgery, pediatric dentistry, restorative, dental hygiene, etc.


No dental clinic is complete without the Tooth Fairy....and Captain Supertooth???



Ty and I volunteered on Friday and Saturday for the morning shifts. I stuffed orange bag after orange bag with brochures, hour after hour. I have never been more sore. I can only imagine how sore the dentists were from sitting in the same position for hours at a time without a break.
This free dental clinic plans to rotate through the four quadrants of our state every year. It took a lot of people, money, and time to put this event on and I hope it continues to be a success every year.

All pictures were taken with my phone, hence the blurriness.


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