Sandy Evans, dental assistant, post-director of the Waldo County Dental Program and PhD candidate, spoke with Dr. John O’Keefe about the importance of coming up with alternative non-traditional ways to deliver dental services in rural areas and to vulnerable populations.
Highlights
Sandy Evans, who worked with the Waldo Community Action Partners in Waldo County, Maine was able to use non-traditional delivery methods to enhance dental and oral health care in rural areas in Maine. Rural areas are often under-serviced with respect to specialized care and access to care may be limited.
Programs were designed and developed to care for vulnerable groups of the population where they were instead of trying to deliver care to them in the traditional dental office setting.
- Children’s Oral Health Program connected with the local Head Start program in schools. A dental clinic was set up and children were invited to come for screenings. Children received cleanings, fluoride treatments and sealants. All children were then given a dental home with a dentist in the community.
- A Seniors’ Clinic was set up in a senior adult day care and served those who hadn’t had regular dental care. Patients received cleanings as well as oral health education and advice on nutrition.
- Federal WIC (Women, Infant and Children) clinics were also developed. These facilities provided care for children and expectant mothers where mothers received their monthly medical checkups.
Lessons Learned
In order to serve people in rural and under-serviced areas, it is important to understand where they would go to seek services and try to understand how they would receive these services. For this reason, basic services were delivered to constituents where they were located. Other patients were referred to dentists within the community after hours or at times of the day or year when their patient loads were diminished.
For others that identify an oral health gap and want to make a difference, it would be wise to discuss the issue with community leaders and stakeholders first and then, seek support and advice from local or state/provincial leaders to try to fill the need. Where possible, partnership with other organizations may help as they will have established systems and protocols to use as a springboard.
Watch the video interview
Sandy Evans currently lives in Columbia, South Carolina. She is the CEO of Sandy Evans Consulting, an oral health educator, public health advocate for seniors, and promoter for stronger communities.
Sandy served as:
- 2002-2007 Director Waldo County Dental Project – Belfast, ME
- 2002-2007 School Oral Health Coordinator- 7 Elementary Schools
- 2002-2007 School Oral Health Educator – 16 Elementary Schools
- 2004 Maine Smiles Matter
- 2005 Maine Dental Access Coalition – Education Committee Chair
- 2005 Maine Dental Access Coalition – Steering Committee Member
- 2005 Watch Your Mouth Campaign
- 2005 Child Safety Conference Guest Speaker
- 2007 -2009 Safety Consultant (OSHA Standards) – Lexington, SC
- 2013-Present Ph.D. Researcher – Columbia, SC
- 2013 – Present: member of the SC Oral Health Advisory Council Coalition, a member of the SC Public Health Association
Presently, pursuing a PhD in public health administration, with the focus of my research on Improving Oral Health Delivery Services to Meet Community Needs.