All Aboard the Molar Express

“So, you guys are not going to pull any of my teeth out yet?”
“No.”
“Not at all?”
“Not today, no, we are not pulling your teeth out. “
“Anytime.”
“We want you to keep your teeth.”

That’s Lane.

He’s six and he’s meeting Alyssa Scott as well as Dawn Mason and Dr. Jeremy Draper.

They are the Molar Express.

They travel throughout the North Country and today they’re in a room at the Groveton Elementary School.

WHIRRING DRILL SOUND.

There are two dentists chairs and all the necessary equipment to do everything from taking x-rays to filling cavities.

Don’t tell Lane but, if necessary, they sure could pull a tooth.

WHIRRING DRILL SOUNDS

But the Molar Express is all about helping children and adults keep their teeth.

The lack of dental care is a serious problem in the North Country.

Debra Simmons is with the North Country Health Consortium, which put the Molar Express on track.

She can’t forget a dentist’s briefing several years ago after he examined North-Country children.

“The oral decay in the children was of epidemic proportions and that the degree of disease in these young people’s mouths was just horrific.”

One reason is a lack of dentists.

Lindsay Josephs is with the Endowment for Health.

“The entire north country has been designated as a dental health professional shortage area.”

Another reason, says Josephs, is the lack of fluoride in the water.

“There is only one public water system in the North Country that has fluoride.”

That’s in Lancaster.

And for many families dental care just doesn’t fit into the budget.

“The North Country has the lowest dental-insurance rate in the state.”

In addition many dentists don’t want to take Medicaid patients because Medicaid doesn’t pay enough.

Susanne Kuehl (Que-ell) is the president elect of the New Hampshire Dental Hygienists’ Association.

She says one thing could help the North Country.

That would be the state allowing hygienists to do some basic work without a dentist being in the office.

“We are the preventive specialists and could provide, right now, sealants, x-rays, prophylaxis, which is the cleaning.”

The New Hampshire Dental Society opposes that concept and helped defeat legislation last year that would have given hygienists the authority to work independently.

The Dental Society argues that hygienists need a dentist on hand to guarantee first-rate care.

Lawmakers have introduced two new bills again this year that would give hygienists more autonomy.

WHIRRING SOUND.

Pretty soon 6 year old Lane, who worried a bit about his visit, gets a surprise.

“I’m all done?”
“You’re all done.”
“It was a great time today. I can definitely tell you that.”

Now Dr. Draper turns to his next patient.

Seth is 10 years-old.

He’s smart and he’s curious.

Draper: “What I am going to do is this one, here, is the biggest one that needs to be worked on. Okay.”
Seth: “So, what do you do to fix them?”
Draper: “Well, first we want to put the tooth to sleep for you so it is sleeping and you won’t feel any of it. Then, you want to take out the old filling and take out all the decay that’s there.”
Seth: “So, how do you take out the old filling?”

WHIRRING SOUND….

Poor dental care doesn’t just mean having crooked yellow teeth.

“It affects children in their ability to learn.

That’s Martha McLeod.

She’s the executive director of the North Country Health Consortium.

“We see little kids with infections in their mouths and abscesses in their mouth, black circles under their eyes, you know they are not sleeping well and they are in pain, they are not eating well, they are under weight.”

Adults are affected, too.

“And then I think in the adults we know there is a link between diabetes and heart disease and poor oral health and the North Country has twice the rate of diabetes and heart disease as the rest of the state.”

Until last year, the Molar Express operated two days a week because the consortium could not find a full-time dentist.

But Dr. Draper has since signed on, and now they’re open four days a week.

He and Scott and Mason visit schools and nursing homes.

Some businesses have also inquired as a way to help out employees who are reluctant to lose a day’s pay to see a dentist.

In 2008 – operating two days a week - the Express treated 833 patients.

The hope is to double if not triple that this year.

Money to run the Molar Express comes from Medicaid and insurance payments as well as federal and state grants.

WHIRRING SOUND

By late morning Seth is just about done and he’s pretty happy that Draper is fixing a problem tooth.

“Thank you for fixing it because every time I go back there, it just goes. Owwwww. I just don’t like it. It doesn’t feel right.”

Running the Molar Express is not like regular dentistry.

There’s a big truck to drive, load and unload in all kinds of weather.

But Draper says he likes the North Country and helping people of all ages.

“We’re just trying to get dentistry out to people that don’t normally get it. We’re trying to serve the people that are underserved.”

He says the job also has an important message, that adult teeth don’t have to be temporary.

“They feel they are going to lose their teeth when they are 30-years-old. We want the kids to be able to have healthy lives and be able to keep their teeth.”

That has gotten across to Seth.

He says he’s going to take better care of the baby teeth and plans to care for those adult teeth when they appear.

“You need to keep your adult teeth clean or else you are going to lose them and there is no going back.”

For NHPR News this is Chris Jensen.