South Dakota has a new dental van.
A replacement van arrived Wednesday morning, provided and refurbished by Mobile Specialty Vehicles in Jasper, Texas. Mike Mueller, spokesman for Delta Dental, said the staff members spent all day Wednesday and will spend all day today cleaning the vehicle and become acquainting with how to operate it. That means learning where the power switches are, checking out the new equipment, and more, he said.
They will also spend these two days stocking the van with dental supplies.
“That’s getting all of that dental equipment. Everything from rubber gloves to the little tools they stick in your mouth. They’ll get all of those loaded on the truck,” Mueller said.
On Wednesday afternoon, both dental vans — the Smile Mobile and the as-yet unnamed vehicle — were being loaded up with supplies. On Monday, both vehicles will head out to provide dental care for kids — the Smile Van heading off to Lake Andes and the new vehicle to Wagner, kicking off eight straight weeks that both vans will be on the road.
Lots of kids
Both dental vans go all across the state to serve children, roughly 40 weeks a year. In 2014, the two vans have served 3,305 young patients.
Mueller added that the service started in Sept. 2004 with one van, and the second van, the Smile Mobile, was added in 2008. In the 11 years that Delta Dental has provided this service, the two vans have provided service to 28,416 patients.
Scott Jones, the chief executive officer of Delta Dental, said he had hoped the vans would have hit the 30,000 mark this year. But after fire claimed the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile, reducing the fleet to one vehicle, it seems that Delta Dental will reach 30,000 in 2016.
Both vans have a busy schedule ahead, servicing towns from Rapid City to Sioux Falls and everywhere in between. Locally, the vans will provide service in LaPlant from Nov. 16 through 20, and at the Pierre Indian Learning Center from Nov. 30 to Dec. 4.
Refurbished
Jones noted that the replacement vehicle is actually an Airstream from 2000 that has been refurbished. Delta Dental could have gotten a new vehicle, but it takes a full year to build one.
Since there hundreds of children throughout the state needing care, that was too long a wait.
“The part we always hate is knowing is there were three or four hundred kids that we could have served during these weeks since the fire that we weren’t able to,” he said.
Instead, Delta Dental found a van that was already available and had it rehabbed over the summer.
“And it’s here now, and will be out in service next week,” Jones said.
The money for the new van came from the Delta Dental board. Also, Delta Dental of Arkansas provided a generous donation, he said.
“Delta Dental is a nonprofit dental service corporation, and our board takes our public benefit responsibility seriously, and so they were very eager to get us back in production as fully and as quickly as possible,” Jones said.
Jones noted that the 35-foot dental truck is 5 feet shorter than the Smile Mobile. The space is more cramped, but that shouldn’t be a problem.
“The dentists that have been working on it figure they can find a way to (make) do with a little more crowded space, as long as they have all of the equipment that they’re going to need to function,” he said.
Jones said that the dental vans can handle just about anything a fully equipped dentist’s office can, with the exception of multi-day work, such as root canals, permanent crowns and orthodontics.
That new car smell
Jones added that Delta Dental already plans to buy a third van. This one, unlike the vehicle delivered Thursday morning, will be brand new.
Once the third van comes, in about a year, Delta will send two out and hold on to the third as a backup. That way, Delta Dental won’t be stuck in the future.
“So if there are mechanical problems with one of the others, they’re not dead in the water out on the road. And that by next morning, we can have another truck there ready,” he said.
There’s another possible use for the third van. In some towns, there are so many children that need to be seen that sometimes, one van can’t handle them all in a week. But two vans mean four dentists chairs. If it’s possible to recruit volunteer dentists from the area, that means more children that can be seen, Jones said.
Delta Dental officials could start shopping for the new vehicle as early as this month, he said.
Source:http://www.capjournal.com/news/delta-dental-unveils-new-dental-van/article_2ef9ab08-574a-11e5-bd24-e31c43d20f19.html
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