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| Gold Beach and Port Orford |
Eastern Oregon - Gold Beach and Port Orford
April 11 thru 15 and April 18 thru 22, 2016 by Carrie Peterson
 Team Tooth Taxi recently spent a couple of weeks at the Southern Oregon Coast. We started off in Gold Beach at Riley Creek Elementary. It had been four years since our last visit to this school and we saw some dramatic changes in the overall oral health of the kids here. The percentage of kids who had dental caries was up 28% and 37% of the kids screened were walking around with pain or an active infection. This meant that Dr. Karli had to extract quite a few teeth in order to get many of these kids out of pain.
 The following week we headed to Driftwood Elementary in Port Orford. Here again we saw an increase in the amount of kids with dental needs, up 45% since our last visit six years ago. One boy in particular, named Nash, was very happy that we had brought him out. He came in, sat down and told us how much his tooth had been hurting him, that his favorite thing to eat was salad and due to the fact that his mouth had been hurting so much he couldn’t eat it anymore. Dr. Karli and Becca worked to get him out of pain, taking out his infected tooth and completing 3 additional fillings. The next day when I saw Nash in the hall, he was all smiles and came right up to me to share how much better he was feeling already. Two days after his extraction Nash came out to the Tooth Taxi for some additional fillings and I’m happy to report that he planned on having salad with his lunch!
Perks of the Job:
Kind words from parents to let you know how thankful they are for the services the Tooth Taxi provides. Here is a note we received from a Mom as we were wrapping in Port Orford.
“Just want to say thank you for taking care of my daughter. I’m a busy, self-employed single Mom and services like this are greatly appreciated and she had no fear from going. Thanks again for your time, expertise, and kindness!”
Stats for Gold Beach and Port Orford:
58 kids screened
40 appointments on the van
32 cleanings
29 sealants
61 fillings
22 extractions
$30,006 in dental care at no charge to the patients
Summary
September 2008-April 22, 2016
• 17,029 students screened
• 18,973 students received oral hygiene education in the classroom
• 9,679 appointments in the van
• $5,487,484 value of free dental services provided
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