News Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DATE: April 7, 2004
For more information, contact: Virginia Elliott, Senior Program Officer
800-369-7191 or velliott@healthfund.org

United Methodist Health Ministry Fund assists in Mission of Mercy

HUTCHINSON — Most of us take oral health for granted.

With adequate insurance coverage, we attend our bi-annual check-up and cleanings and have the ability to immediately seek professional care in the event of an oral health emergency. Other than our daily regimen of brushing and flossing, we rarely give oral health a second thought and never realize the suffering many endure.

But the recent Kansas Mission of Mercy projects brought to light just how limited access to oral health actually is in the state. The initiative offered oral health to those with the inability to pay for dental services. Organized by the Kansas Dental Association in cooperation with the Kansas Dental Hygienists Association, the program featured free dental services volunteered by dental professionals during a weekend in both Garden City and in Wyandotte County.

A third Mission of Mercy event is planned for this spring in Pittsburg. The Kansas Mission of Mercy Southeast Kansas will take place April 30 through May 2.

More that 2,600 patients were treated in Wyandotte County in October 2003, while 1,734 received the free services in Garden City in March of that year.

The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund funded an exit interview of patients attending the 2003 Mission of Mercy events in an effort to obtain information about the availability of oral health care in Kansas. The results were consistent with the knowledge many working on oral health issues have long known.

“If you can’t pay for a dentist, you just won’t get care unless there is a dentist willing to volunteer services,” said Kim Moore, president of the Hutchinson-based Health Fund. “Medicaid provides almost no adult dental benefits and access by children to Medicaid dental services is problematic in most areas of the state.”

These facts were evidenced by the data gathered in the exit survey. At the Garden City event, 27 percent of the patients stated they had never received previous dental services, while 17 percent at the Wyandotte County Mission of Mercy were seeing a dentist for the first time.

According to the report, even though many children were among those seeing a dentist for the first time in Wyandotte County, the distribution of patients who had not received a dental visit within the past six months was roughly the same across all age groups, ranging from about 88 to 93 percent.

The exit survey found 75 percent of clinic patients who had waited more than six months to receive care cited the lack of insurance coverage as a reason to postpone seeking care.

One patient was quoted as saying, “I lost a molar because I could not afford payment. This free help saved a front tooth. Thank you so much!”

Another responded, “I am very grateful for the wonderful people giving their time and knowledge to help me. I cannot afford it.”
Other key findings from the Garden City Mission of Mercy included:

Nearly half reported someone in their household had suffered dental pain in the past year
Only one in three children and one in four adults had a usual source of dental care.
Eighty percent of responding patients were adults, and nearly two-thirds were Hispanic.

“Conducting these exit surveys was crucial to the Health Fund’s continuing mission to address the needs of oral health across the state,” Moore said. “This information will assist the Health Fund in determining the acute oral health needs of Kansans and the most effective ways to address those.”

In addition to funding an exit survey at the Kansas Mission of Mercy Southeast Kansas event, the Health Fund provided a $10,000 grant for additional needed equipment for the Kansas Mission of Mercy event. The Health Fund is also funding the presence of the United Methodist Hutchinson District Disaster Trailer at the event to provide food for patients.

Since 1998, the Hutchinson-based Health Fund has awarded 138 grants totalling more than $3.2 million to fund oral health prevention programs, including water fluoridation in eight Kansas communities. For more information about the KMOM SEK, visit www.ksdentalfoundation.org.

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