Mobile Medical
How Mobile Dental Clinics Are Helping Rural Locations
May 24, 2021
Mobile dental clinics are a powerful tool for dentists. These specialty vehicles can be driven to remote and underserved locations to offer dental services to communities that are traditionally hard to reach.
Some dental offices invest in a mobile clinic to help reach the rural parts of their community or urban and suburban communities beyond their immediate neighborhood. In doing so, these clinics can assist patients in areas where brick-and-mortar locations are not found.
Whether you are a dental practice ready to expand the area you serve, or you are a public health care clinic that provides free or low-cost services, adding a mobile dental clinic to your business can help you reach a whole new set of patients.
The following are critical ways in which mobile dental clinics are helping to increase access to important oral care.
Reaching Underserved Communities
Across the nation, many communities lack access to important dental care. Some of these communities are rural, lacking large enough populations to support a dental office, while others may be located within cities, in communities that are impoverished.
Entire communities may go without critical oral health care for years. Often, within these communities where dental health care is limited, there are subsects of the population who suffer the most.
A mobile dental clinic allows dentists to reach these underserved communities. Without the need for transportation, patients who were previously incapable of reaching a dental office location can now access the oral health care they need. These mobile clinics also help reach people with limited schedules or childcare needs, who may not have the time to travel for an appointment.
In particular, this has gone a long way in helping those living under the poverty line who cannot afford the high costs associated with visiting traditional dental clinics. The end result is that both children and adults receive the oral care they need to contribute to a healthier lifestyle.
Partnerships with Behavioral Health Services
Another outstanding way that mobile dental clinics assist rural communities is through a partnership with behavioral health services. Often, homeless or transient communities will seek out oral care long before they will seek out behavioral health care.
Through a partnership, health care professionals can assess the whole health of individuals in need, connecting those in rural areas with the assistance they require.
This can be a powerful tool when working in remote areas where behavioral health care services are limited.
Combatting Long-Term Issues Through Preventative Care
Preventive oral health care is key to combating long-term dental health issues. In rural communities, too often preventative care is overlooked due to the inconvenience or inability of being able to see a dentist. When this happens, serious oral health issues can arise, leading to a myriad of medical issues.
A mobile dental clinic can be used to help prevent long-term medical concerns by offering annual cleanings and screenings to communities that previously did not have easy access to these services.
On a monthly or even weekly basis, these mobile clinics can be driven to rural communities, allowing patients to schedule checkups before a serious oral issue arises.
Offering Specialized Services to Homebound Patients
People who are homebound, including some elderly people, may find it difficult to get to a dental office no matter their location. During the pandemic, this was only exacerbated, creating a rising need for home health care services.
A mobile dental clinic makes it possible for dentists to provide specialized services to patients incapable of leaving their homes.
Educating the Next Generation
One of the best ways to improve the health of any community is by educating the next generation while they are still young. Colgate uses its mobile dental vans to not only provide dental care to communities and also to educate children about proper dental hygiene.
A mobile dental clinic makes it possible to travel to communities and host educational events for children in the area. Children can learn the importance of scheduling routine checkups and teeth cleaning. These vans can make dental care an exciting event where they come away with a fun memory and a positive association with dental care.
Additionally, these clinics can be outfitted with everything needed to conduct dental visits at schools and other community centers.
A Powerful Tool for Overcoming Obstacles
It is easy to see that mobile dental clinics are playing a powerful role in reaching locations across our country. Mobile dental offices can be designed to offer most of the same services as an office location.
This has allowed dentists across the nation to overcome obstacles of all kinds, delivering dental services to patients in remote and underserved regions of their community. The future of medicine will continue to rely on the power of these mobile units to ensure that no one goes without the dental care they need.
Talk to Summit Bodyworks About a Custom Mobile Dental Clinic
For many living in communities with limited access to dental care, mobile dental clinics are their sole means for receiving critical dental care. If your practice is considering expanding your services through the use of a mobile dental clinic, our team is here to help.
At Summit Bodyworks, we have over 30 years of experience building specialty vehicles. We can help you customize a mobile dental clinic to meet your community’s specific needs.
Interested in seeing previous work we have done? Check out the Colgate-Palmolive Mobile Dental Clinic, one of our recent builds.
In addition to our years of experience customizing dental vehicles, we are also proud to provide premium customer service to all our clients. Our goal is to ensure that throughout the entire build, you are completely satisfied with the work of our team.
If you are interested in creating a custom mobile dental clinic, reach out to our team today. We will be more than happy to answer your questions and assist you with your build.
