HOULTON, Maine — By midweek, more than 80 northern Maine residents, unable to access regular dental care, had their teeth and gums examined, filled, extracted and cleaned at a portable clinic in Houlton.
As part of the Caring Hands of Maine traveling dental clinic, anyone without access to dental care was eligible for free services on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday, with some traveling from as far away as Caribou and Fort Kent, said Dr. Timothy Oh, the nonprofit’s director and founder.
Although there are a handful of dentists in Aroostook County, access to care since the COVID-19 pandemic has gotten worse, said Oh. The number of dental offices has dwindled and for the ones remaining, many are not accepting new patients and no longer accept MaineCare payments.
For the uninsured, there are few low-cost options, Oh said.
“Most people tell us, ‘I’ve been trying to get a dentist for four or five years,’” Oh said. “That’s the backlog we are trying to help.”
Over the weekend, Oh and his team brought $250,000 worth of dental equipment into the Rollerama skating rink that the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians runs on Main Street. Within hours, the rink was transformed into a working dental clinic, complete with the latest technology and X-ray capabilities.
Caring Hands of Maine is a full-time, mission driven nonprofit dental program, operating the Caring Hands of Maine Dental Center in Ellsworth. The travel component of the program has been going to rural communities across the state since 2010. And it has been coming to Aroostook County since 2016, with clinics in Houlton, Fort Fairfield and Caribou.
Last month, Caring Hands participated in a trip to Ethiopia, Oh said.
“We strive to bring care to underserved areas,” he said.
Besides providing necessary health services in those areas, the clinics have also provided critical training to over 400 dental students, with 13 returning to the state to work as dentists.
For this week’s Houlton clinic, students from three dental programs — at University of Connecticut, Tufts University in Massachusetts and the Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health — performed the procedures under the supervision of Oh and University of Connecticut Professor Ron Albert.
Oh is currently on faculty at Tufts and the University of New England College of Dental Medicine, and he formerly served at the University of Maine.
“We got a call from Katahdin Valley Health Center, and they are recruiting a dentist and they want to meet our students,” Oh said. “We are trying to introduce people to rural health opportunities. It’s working. One of our trainees is from Houlton and now he is working in Houlton.”
Funding for the free dental care comes from Caring Hands of Maine as well as the Houlton nonprofit Aid for Kids.
Dannette Ellis, of Aid for Kids, took care of the logistics, housing and meals, while the Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians donated the use of the building for the three-day clinic.
“Dannette is the unsung hero in all this,” Oh said.
Several of this week’s patients told Oh that the last time they had any dental care was when Caring Hands of Maine was up in The County five years ago, he said.
“We’ve had a tremendous response,” Oh said, adding that they’ve had offers of ice cream, deer meat and potatoes in appreciation.
Thursday is a travel day for the 15-member clinic crew, and on Friday it will be on Islesboro, an island off Rockland. The group will be taking all the equipment onto the ferry to reach the island.
“We’re showing the students a little bit of The County and a little bit of the coast,” Oh said. “We’re trying to get them to move to Maine.”
