Denistry unit is a jungle on wheels

Lilly Bethel, center, and her brother Caleb Bethel, left, wait for their cousin Abby Farris, right, to pick out a color-changing mood straw as Community Health Center of Central Missouri representatives hand out free toothbrushes and straws before the start of Friday night's Stars Under the Stars movie night on the Missouri Capitol South Lawn. Community Health Center representatives were on hand for the event to pass out flyers and promotional material following the unveiling of their new mobile dentistry unit earlier in the evening.
Lilly Bethel, center, and her brother Caleb Bethel, left, wait for their cousin Abby Farris, right, to pick out a color-changing mood straw as Community Health Center of Central Missouri representatives hand out free toothbrushes and straws before the start of Friday night's Stars Under the Stars movie night on the Missouri Capitol South Lawn. Community Health Center representatives were on hand for the event to pass out flyers and promotional material following the unveiling of their new mobile dentistry unit earlier in the evening.

The Community Health Center of Central Missouri (CHCCM) unveiled their new mobile dentistry unit at the Stars Under the Stars showing of "Back to the Future," on the Capitol lawn, Friday evening.

The CHCCM provides primary medical care to underinsured or uninsured patients in Cole, Monteau, Callaway and Osage Counties. Their new mobile dentistry unit is intended to travel to those counties and provide dentistry services that include full dental exams, filings, teeth cleaning and more. For more serious dental procedures the mobile unit can refer patients to the CHCCM clinic, said Lorna Cockrum, CHCCM outreach coordinator.

"It looks like a jungle," she said about the bright colored van that has been painted with foliage, simians, zebras and giraffes. "It is to bring dentistry to health departments on days that a lot of families are there and to provide those families with a dentist to meet their needs."

The unit's first scheduled appearance is Aug. 8, at the Cole County Health Department. Eventually the dentistry unit will hopefully visit schools and pediatric centers to help children in need of minor dental procedures and check ups, Cockrum said.

"We are excited about it," she said about the vehicle. "It is pretty exciting to be offering this to our patient population. We hope this grow and be instrumental in our community to take care of oral health needs."

The dentist does not practice in the vehicle, but carries the equipment such as a mobile dentist chair and other equipment to set up an office in an available space. The vehicle and modifications were paid for with a $450,000 grant from the Missouri Foundation for Help.

Stars Under the Stars is presented by Parks and Recreation in cooperation with the Community Health Center of Central Missouri and the Samaritan Center. It is free to all and the Samaritan Center collects nonperishable food items during the show.