Mobile dental clinics have been presented as one of the most significant innovations of the century in the field of mobile dentistry. As most of the citizens in the United States have been struggling with availing the most convenient type of care for their dental care. In the traditional type of dentistry, a patient has two options. The first one is, they will need to set up an appointment prior to the actual treatment and wait for a scheduled date and when the day comes, they need to travel still along with the pain they are already feeling. The second option mostly applies during times of emergency in which the patient, without an appointment, chooses to travel to the dental clinic to avail of the care that he or she needs the most, but since there is no scheduled treatment, the patient will need to conquer the waiting hours of falling in the line while waiting for his or her turn to get treated.
This dilemma has been one of the most challenging parts of mobile dentistry yet there are still other difficulties that come in the form of lack of access to most locations in the United States. We are all aware that not all places have nearby dental clinics and the distance of the nearest clinics could be one of the potential reasons why some communities choose not to deal with dental care.
In the data that have been published by the World Health Organization in 2018, it has been stated that oral diseases are the most common non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and affect people throughout their lifetime, causing pain, discomfort, disfigurement and even death. The Global Burden of Disease Study 2016 estimated that oral diseases affected half of the world’s population (3.58 billion people) with dental caries (tooth decay) in permanent teeth being the most prevalent condition assessed.
This information is quite scary, aren’t they? And alarming is the best adjective that could suit these findings. In pursuit of finding the best and the fastest way to resolve these issues, mobile dental clinics have been introduced on the road and it actually has a lot of benefits that mostly answer the challenges being faced by many communities today in the hands of traditional dental clinics. Here are some:
The Gift of Access
With mobile dental clinics, previously unreachable communities become reachable. Since it has been a norm in most communities to not deal with dental care and hence ignore their difficulties or pain, clinics that provide dental care have been the ones that are brought closer to patients. The main significance is that, mobile dental clinics do not just answer the lack of access but it also brings hope to other communities around the United States for their problem had somehow found its solution.
The Convenience and Comfort of Treatment
Aside from resolving the problem about the access of dental care, mobile dental clinics have also made giving the treatment a lot more convenient in a sense that solutions are already given in the comfort of the patient’s home or community. It might not be seen as a challenge previously in the past years but patients gain more confidence if they are being treated in a place or location where they feel security at its finest. In addition to that, since the dental clinic is already located nearby or just in their doorway, they can continue with their tasks in their own homes while waiting for their turn and also, they can get an immediate rest right after the operations.
The Quality of Treatment
This factor has been one of the subjects of debates about mobile dental clinics. The question about giving quality treatment has sparked a lot of discussions because some people say that mobile dentistry only provides preventive care and does not actually resolve the main concern of the patient. Well, just like the traditional dental clinics, mobile dentistry has its own pool of professional dentists and staffs that provide proper consultation and quality treatment to their patients. In conclusion, the quality of treatment is not a question here yet a discovery that with the evolution of dentistry brought about by technology, the quality of treatment either just stays the same like the best or only gets in a continuous trance of improvement.
More Opportunities to Spark Positive Change
Given the fact that mobile dentistry has just been newly-introduced as the newest technique in the field of dentistry, it still has a long way to go before being fully implemented not just in the United States but also in the whole world. Still, due to the dental clinic’s mobility, the opportunity to locate patient bases is vast and will be very helpful in familiarizing other States about the benefits of setting up a mobile dental clinic. The capability to conduct community outreach programs, factories, retirement communities, business parks, schools, or any other location with numerous employees or attendees is a possibility.