A dentist’s office on wheels? It’s true — just ask the thousands of regional students ages 3-18 who have sat in patients’ chairs and said “ahh” in Ascension St. Vincent’s Mobile Dental Clinic. Linked to the Peyton Manning Children’s Hospital on St. Vincent’s Washington Avenue campus, the clinic took root years before the retired pro quarterback’s namesake hospital expanded into Evansville in 2019.
The mobile clinic was the brainchild of Sister Kelly, a nun with the order of the Daughters of Charity who sought to address both the lack of access to dental care and the rising rates of tooth decay in children. “We’re not just a patch clinic. A lot of the kids we see … we can change the trajectory of their dental health,” says general dentist Dr. John Anoskey, who, with a group under Sister Kelly’s leadership, helped get the clinic rolling in 2000. After 41 years in private practice, Anoskey retired three years ago; since then, he works two days a week at the mobile clinic.
The need for dental care is great: A three-year Centers For Disease Control & Prevention survey published in 2024 reported that nearly one in five children ages 6-8 years experienced decay in at least one baby tooth; in the same age group, that number rocketed to 50 percent with permanent teeth. The survey found children living at high or middle poverty levels are more than twice as likely to have untreated tooth decay.
The program hits its mark in two big ways: It removes a major health care obstacle — transportation — by bringing the clinic directly to patients, and it accepts all dental insurance, including Hoosier Healthwise, for appointments. All transportation, dental supplies, and treatment services are funded by donations through the Ascension St. Vincent Foundation.
The clinic stays busy, visiting a different school each day, five days a week in Vanderburgh, Warrick, Posey, and Gibson counties. The bus pulls up to schools before the first bell rings. Staff are available 8 a.m.-2:30 p.m. for patient appointments. The goal is to treat 20 patients per day; at Tekoppel Elementary School on Oct. 2, the appointment list was long, and staff members anticipated exceeding their daily goal. The clinic typically sees around 2,178 students and performs 7,434 treatments per year.
Tight communication keeps the clinic running like a well-oiled machine. Schools promote bus visits via social media and text alerts. After parents or guardians sign up their students for an exam, office manager Jessica Bumgardner sets up appointments, and bus drivers Bobby Shipman and Richard Hudson coordinate with school nurses on escorts to and from the bus. (The current bus is the clinic’s second; the first lasted around 15 years.)
Separated by privacy partitions, up to three students can be seen at a time by the dental team; many children are repeat visitors and have built a rapport with dentists and their staff. Patients receive check-ups and cleanings, plus fluoride treatments, x-rays, sealants, fillings, and extractions. With tooth decay on the rise — “Decay rates in our new patients are as high as I’ve ever seen them,” Anoskey says — oral education is a big topic during patient visits, and students are sent back to class with stickers and a bag with floss, a toothbrush, and other supplies.
“When we’re able to have what we might call multiple touches where we see the kid for several appointments, we see that we’re changing the trajectory. They don’t keep getting tons of new cavities,” Anoskey says.
Drs. Anoskey, Jay Craig, Derek Graber, Michelle Saxe, Bryant Burkett, and Franklin Edge rotate shifts and are assisted by dental hygienists Lauren Baker, Jennifer Dossett, and Shelby Barrett. Fillings are a frequently needed service, and clinic dentists refer children needing extra care to pediatric specialists, who with oral surgeons are extensions of the Mobile Dental Clinic’s programming. If the staff encounters a language barrier, a parent may step in, the school can provide a translator, or staff members use translation apps.
The benefits of consistent and increased dental care run deeper than the surface. “In the last 25 years, the percentage of kids who have mental health problems has gone up. We know for a fact that when the teeth are bad, it exacerbates mental health problems. And when we get the teeth healthy, that helps improve their overall self-esteem,” Anoskey says. “So, when we take a kid with cavities, and we get the cavities fixed and we give them positive reinforcement … that self-esteem improvement can help whatever mental health problems they’re struggling with.”
Although many of the patients fall in the lower end of income demographics, the clinic is available for any student seeking dental services — even those who already have a dentist. “It’s complicated to make dental appointments — transport is a huge issue, and (the clinic) eliminates that hurdle,” Anoskey says. “We also have patients who have regular dental insurance, and they use this for convenience, and that’s awesome, too.”
With the Mobile Dental Clinic reaching its silver anniversary, the foundation is increasing its efforts to create an endowment. Its average annual operating cost is $563,423, and “because of the expenses, we operate at an annual deficit. We never completely break even,” Anoskey says. “If we can give that endowment to a certain number, it would cover the deficit for decades to come.”
