Monday August 24, 2009

The Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness has a new mobile dental health unit. The 40-foot vehicle will bring emergency and regular dental services to adults and seniors at locations throughout Louisville.

The mobile dental health unit was purchased with $387,000.00 in federal funds secured by Congressman John Yarmuth. “Because of a lack of access to basic dental care, tooth decay is currently one of the most common forms of chronic disease among children and adults in Kentucky,” said Yarmuth. “With these funds, Louisville will now have a second mobile dental unit traveling to neighborhoods throughout our community and providing much-needed oral health care.”

“The new mobile dental health unit is yet another example of Congressman Yarmuth bringing about improvements in the lives of people of our community,” said Louisville mayor Jerry Abramson.

The mobile dental health unit comes equipped with two dental chairs and digital imaging capability. It will be staffed with a dentist, two expanded-function dental assistants and a driver who will double as a dental clerk. The unit will provide dental services three days a week, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday, at clinics sites on Dixie Highway, in Middletown and in Newburg. The Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness is also in the process of securing a site for the dental unit in west Louisville and expects to serve approximately 2,500 patients with the dental unit in the first year of operations.

“The fact that the unit is mobile gives us much more flexibility in where we can deliver dental services,” said Metro Public Health and Wellness director Dr. Adewale Troutman. “We can now provide dental services in all sectors of the community rather than being limited to a fixed location. I want to thank Congressman Yarmuth for this and for all he is doing to improve the health of the people of Louisville.”

The Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness will continue to use its other mobile health unit to provide such services as dental screenings and immunizations to children in schools throughout Louisville. Last year the department used its other mobile unit to provide dental screenings at elementary schools to more than 1700 children in partnership with Smile Kentucky and at middle schools to more than 185 children with services provided by the Metro Department of Public Health and Wellness.

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