Thursday, February 7, 2013
SPRINGDALE — Ten smiling Harp Elementary School students held placards that spelled out $1 million.
The students are all patients of the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, a mobile dental clinic, and took part of a third anniversary celebration held Wednesday at the school. The signs represented a milestone the clinic hit last year — providing $1 million in free dental work for kids.
“We are serving children in Northwest Arkansas that do not have a dental home,” said Daniel Barnes, president of McClelland Consulting Engineers’ Fayetteville office and chairman of the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile Advisory Committee. “Statistically children with good dental hygiene have better overall health and increased self-esteem.”
The 40-foot, fully-equipped dental clinic on wheels stops at 17 elementary schools in Benton and Washington counties. The four-person clinic staff saw almost 1,700 patients over the first three years, said Jennifer Dean, Ronald McDonald Care Mobile program manager.
The clinic is equipped with two exam rooms and an X-ray machine. It spends two weeks at each participating school. Between 25 and 30 children are evaluated during the first week. Paperwork explaining what procedures need to be completed are sent home and a guardian must sign a permission slip. The clinic returns a week or two later and the remaining dental work is completed.
The clinic is a project of the Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkoma and is supported by corporate partners Arkansas Children’s Hospital, Tyson Foods and Delta Dental of Arkansas.
The children’s hospital provides the clinic with a dentist, two dental assistants and a patient information assistant.
The Northwest Arkansas Care Mobile in one of three projects statewide addressing dental health needs of children.
“We saw a need for dental assistance following our 2007 Natural Wonders report,” said Fidel Samour, project coordinator at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
The Natural Wonders Partnership Council is composed of organizations that serve children and was created by Arkansas Children’s Hospital to identify health needs of the state’s children.
More than a quarter of third graders statewide were in need of routine dental care and 64 percent had current or past cavities, according to the 2011 Natural Wonders report.
Participating schools were selected based on the number of free and reduced-price meals it serves, he said.
Stephanie Medford, executive director of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkoma, said her group is preparing to reassess where the need is greatest.
“Things change in five years,” she said. “We need to make sure where are going where we can have the greatest impact.”
Springdale elementary schools account for seven of the 17 schools the mobile clinic visits.
“We consider this a gift from the community,” said Allison Strange, Harp Elementary principal. “We are helping set our children up for success.”
Justina Joklur has seen a change in her nephew Justin after he went through the program. The third-grader had never been to a dentist, but got some cavities filled at the mobile clinic.
“He is smiling a lot more and he is even showing off his fillings,” Joklur said. “If it wasn’t for the clinic I don’t know what I could do.”
Care Mobile Stops
The Ronald McDonald Care Mobile stops in 17 Northwest Arkansas schools.
-Seven in Springdale
-Five in Rogers
-Three in Fayetteville
-One in Lincoln
-One in Decatur
Source: Ronald McDonald House Charities Of Arkoma
Devon Cole, group vice president of food service at Tyson Foods, said he didn’t realize how great the need for dental assistance was until he started looking into contributing to the Care Mobile.
“One of Tyson’s core values is to give back to the community, and this provided a unique opportunity,” he said. “For a kid to be able to smile confidently is a change for the better.”
Bill Mathews, president of Ronald McDonald House Charities of Arkoma, said he is amazed at how much impact the clinic has had in the first three years. Mathews and his brother Walter are owners of Mathews Management, which owns franchising rights to all area McDonald’s restaurants.
“More and more people are seeing the van roll through town, and are recognizing the work it is doing,” he said. “It’s exciting to get more people involved with the group.”
Ronald McDonald House Charities operates as a nonprofit group and isn’t officially affiliated with McDonald’s Corporation outside a licensing agreement used primarily for marketing. Medford said the fast food chain is the charity’s largest corporate donor.