Free Dental & Vision Clinic - Volunteer Info

Wewoka Woods Adventist Center will be the location for the upcoming Native Ministries Dental Disparity Clinic. We are excited to get volunteers for this outreach weekend! 

40 Volunteers must be 18 years of age and will help where needed. The areas for volunteers are listed below. Please select which you are most interested in helping with when you register. 

Registration

This position is at the very front of the line. The registration volunteer will take the application form and write the patient's name, address, and contact information. The patient is then directed to dental, vision or medical.

5 people (need good handwriting)

Medical Triage

This position takes the patient from registration and measures blood pressure, pulse, and takes a medical history. An RN or EMT is preferred but with our digital cuffs, anyone can do it with minimal training.

3-4 nurses

Dental Triage

After entering the dental line from getting their medical history taken, the patient will get an X-ray. A dentist is usually required because a determination is made as to what procedure is needed. A retired dentist or a volunteer dentist from out-of-state can sometimes be used here due to limited liability. A dental assistant is useful to help take X-rays but computer-savvy people can be trained to help.

1 dentist or dental assistant

2 people (input X-ray, put on lead apron, guide patients in/out)

Dental Clinic

Here the patient will received treatment. There will be minimum 10 dental operatories setup here. Each operatory has high/low speed handpieces, suction, water and air. A dentist and his/her assistant works at each operatory.

10 dentists/ dental hygienists

10 assistants are needed for each station (dentist or hygienist) - if an actual dental assistant is not available, any competent person can sit next to the dentist, hold the suction, pass instruments, get supplies as needed and other wise help the dentist.

Vision Clinic

Patients after medical triage come here to get an eye exam and to select a pair of free glasses.

2 optometrists/ ophthalmologists

2-3 assistants - help manage the line, take auto-refractor readings while people wait, help select frames, bag/tag each frame, assist the eye doctors

Lifestyle Medicine

Here many MD's, RN's and RD's have expertise and even certification in this area. Since most of chronic disease today is lifestyle related, the clinic can be a powerful time to present lifestyle medicine (ie. NEWSTART, 8 LAWS. etc/).

2-5 health coaches

Hospitality

These volunteers help guide the patients throughout the different stages of the clinic, particularly after medical and dental triage as most patients wait after this point. Hospitality will help make sure waiting patients know their turn is coming up and to help guide patients to the correct areas. After treatment, hospitality will make sure each patient returns their forms and then exits. Upon exit, it is useful to have an exit survey. Hospitality volunteers can offer this survey at the exit.

5-10 people

Food

At least one meal, lunch, should be served to the volunteers. This volunteer will help with the cooking/packaging of the lunch and the service of the food during the lunchtime. Lunch times are not set as volunteers come in stages and eat quickly so times are usually over a 2 hour duration. Food or snacks are also great for patients. Granola bars or such snacks should be available for patients since for some, the wait time may be hours and depending when they ate, they could be weak. volunteers in this area include not just the cooks but the people helping serve the food.

2-5 people

TOTAL approx 35 people in addition to dentists

Translators are useful to have if we know there will be Spanish-speaking people (or whatever language we're needing).

This dental disparity clinic is designed to be a place where people who don't have access to dental care will be able to receive this much-needed care. No charge for volunteers and lodging + meals are available.