Providing Charitable Care to Kids in Every Corner of the State
Business Feature: The Dental Foundation of Oregon
By Dental Foundation of Oregon
Headquartered at SW Sun Place across from the Ferrari dealership, The Dental Foundation of Oregon (DFO) is the charitable arm of the Oregon Dental Association. Their mission is to advance oral health education, provide charitable care and coordinate resources for vulnerable children and communities.
Since its launch in 2008, the DFO’s marquee dental program – the Tooth Taxi – has provided critical dental care for children onsite at schools across Oregon using a (formerly) state-of-the-art 38’ mobile dental clinic on wheels. The Tooth Taxi is Oregon’s ONLY mobile dental unit singularly devoted to delivering FREE pediatric dental care and oral health education.
On the road year-round, the success of the Tooth Taxi is rooted in a variety of partnerships with schools and nonprofit organizations, experts in outreach and engagement, and service to vulnerable children and families. Success is also possible due to the passionate and licensed provider team aboard the mobile unit, including a dentist and two technicians who spend up to five days at each school or nonprofit site, delivering a range of comprehensive dental care from screenings and cleanings to fillings and extractions.
The Tooth Taxi serves schools for one week at a time and the dental services provided allow children to become better students by eliminating pain and enhancing their self-image. Teachers work even harder to manage classrooms when they have students who are suffering with dental pain. With the absence of oral health issues, students can focus during instructional time, absenteeism improves, and teachers encounter less teaching disruption. The overall stress level in the classroom improves significantly. But perhaps a more important measure of the positive impact of the Tooth Taxi is the display of bravery and grateful smiles of the children, who are also resilient, funny, and determined to smile on! For the past fifteen years, The Dental Foundation of Oregon and the Tooth Taxi program have steadfastly adhered to their mission, and as a result, the positive impact of the Tooth Taxi program can be demonstrated by the numbers:
| Patients Screened | 25,613 |
| Students Received Classroom Oral Hygiene Education | 25,785 |
| Value of Services | $8,816,047 |
| Unique Appointments on the Van | 15,455 |
The Tooth Taxi is also very proud to serve a diverse population of patients; this graph demonstrates the patients seen in the last four years and is reflective of the patient demographics during the entire tenure of service to Oregon youth.
| 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | |
| White | 40.10% | 48.50% | 33.10% | 37.40% |
| Hispanic | 36.90% | 45.80% | 39.40% | |
| Black | 8.20% | 7.60% | 9.30% | 9.70% |
| Asian | 3.30 % | 3% | 3% | 2.60% |
| American Indian | 2.90% | 1.90% | 2% | 0.70% |
| Other | 4% | 2.10% | 6.80% | 10.20% |
The Dental Foundation of Oregon is set to retire their first mobile clinic, which has traveled over 90,000 miles within the borders of Oregon providing care onsite at schools. The team is excited to welcome a brand-new replacement mobile clinic; this marks an exciting new chapter in the history of the program, and with that comes new opportunities yet to be realized.
The Dental Foundation of Oregon, working with a number of local companies, long-term community partners and other support – businesses like GISI Marketing (exterior vehicle wrap), American Dental Industries, Inc. (interior build-out and coordination with Winnebago), Moda Health Marketing (creative conceptualization), and A-dec (dental equipment) – this team of industry experts were routinely challenged as they navigated global supply chain issues during the pandemic to help bring the new Tooth Taxi to fruition. Manufacturing and outfitting the new state of the art Tooth Taxi has been a nearly three-year long process.
The village of Tooth Taxi supporters includes public/private partnership with the membership of the Oregon Dental Association, MODA Health, Delta Dental, OEA Choice Trust, and dozens of family and charitable foundations, along with thousands of individual donors. This generosity ensures that all children are free of dental pain, ready and able to learn in the classroom and enjoy increased confidence in the appearance of their smile!
The Dental Foundation is a proud member of Philanthropy Northwest and the Nonprofit Association of Oregon. Since 2019, they have achieved Platinum status on Candid (formerly GuideStar), the premier destination for nonprofits and nonprofit research. Most recently, for the first time ever, they were independently evaluated and rated by Charity Navigator and earned a 92/100 score!
Together, they strive to build a stronger and brighter future for Oregon’s children – one tooth and one child at a time.
Learn More and Get Involved!
Wilsonville is a wonderful community in which to live, learn, work, and serve. The Dental Foundation of Oregon is a proud nonprofit member of the community, and it loves getting to know its neighbors! There are many ways to get involved with the DFO – here are just a few:
• Help support The Dental Foundation of Oregon and the Tooth Taxi program through the 2023 BottleDrop Give matching funds, and their social media program this holiday season! Starting November 15th through December 2nd, GREEN BAG accounts receive a 20% match from BottleDrop Give on funds raised.
• Join them on Tuesday, November 28, 2023 as The Dental Foundation of Oregon celebrates its 10th year of participation in Giving Tuesday, a global generosity movement embracing the power of radical generosity. Support the movement and make a financial donation or simply use the power of your voice in your local community to promote the DFO mission.
• Follow them on social media – Facebook (www.facebook.com/DentalFoundationofOregon) and Instagram (www.instagram.com/toothtaxi/)
• Talk to your local dentist about sharing DFO materials with their patients
• Encourage retired dentists you know to volunteer their time and expertise
Interested in having the Tooth Taxi visit your school? Please contact Carrie Peterson, Tooth Taxi Program Manager via email carrie.peterson@modahealth.com or cell: 503-329-8877.
