Dental, health care events return to UVA Wise campus July 19-20

Both events are scheduled for July 19-20, and — for the first time — both will be held at the University of Virginia’s College at Wise Convocation Center. The health clinic, hosted by the Health Wagon, has traditionally been at the Wise Fairgrounds where it all began as the largest Remote Area Medical event in the nation.

The event continues to provide much needed care for residents of this corner of Appalachia and beyond, according to Tara Quinn, executive director of the Virginia Dental Association Foundation.

“We’ll be offering dental exams, cleanings, extractions, fillings and we’ll have a limited denture capability,” Quinn said. “We’ll be doing denture repairs, relines and simple partials and we’ll be doing denture triage.”

A denture-specific event is being planned for Abingdon in October, she said.

“If you haven’t been to the dentist in more than six months or are experiencing oral pain, please join us. Our incredible volunteer dental teams will provide compassionate care to everyone who joins us. Care will be provided on a first come, first served basis.”

The biggest difference, she said, was that the Health Wagon’s medical services would be occurring under the same roof.

Last year about 500 patients received free dental services and Quinn said they are prepared to treat more this year.

“We tried to make it simple for the residents. Instead of going to the fairgrounds for certain services and then coming to us, it will all be in one location. Hopefully more people will be aware this is all happening on the same days at the same place,” Quinn said. “Pre-pandemic we were around 1,000 and we’ll have the capacity to see more than we did last year and we really hope people take advantage of the opportunity to come out.”

Providing that volume of care in two days requires a “tremendous effort,” Quinn said.

“We estimate we’ll have about 300 volunteers from all across the state – dentists, dental hygeniests, assistants. VCU’s School of Dentistry is part of this and quite a few folks from there are coming and then a lot general volunteers. It is many months in the making of coordination and planning plus the support we get from local businesses, local volunteers are making sure everybody is housed and fed.”

Medical services include specialist exams, sports physicals, EKGs, diabetes screening, blood work, breathing tests, chest x-rays, ob/gyn services, cancer screenings, ultrasounds, hearing screenings, plus eye exams, glaucoma testing and prescription glasses.

Appointments are required for eye care, most other services are provided on a first-come, first-served basis.

Doors open each day at 7 a.m. Mission of Mercy operates on Friday and Saturday from 7 a.m.-5 p.m. Patients are encouraged to arrive early. Pre-registration begins on Thursday, July 18 at noon.

Organizers recommend attendees wear comfortable clothes and bring food and drink for the day. No overnight parking on the UVa-Wise campus is allowed.

The dental clinic was first started 25 years ago in Wise by Dr. Terry Dickinson. Today, more than 30 states implement similar models to address unmet oral health needs.

Over the past 25 years, Mission of Mercy has served more than 25,000 patients and provided over $22.2 million in free dental care at the Wise County event alone.

The VDAF estimates it costs over $60,000 to put on the event for patients.