Special Projects to Improve Oral Health

Give Kids a Smile

Apple Tree participates annually in the Give Kids a Smile program, a national and statewide effort sponsored by the American Dental Association and Minnesota Dental Association. Each yearvolunteer dentists provide much-needed care to children experiencing dental pain or concerns. Apple Tree participates in this program at our clinics, or using our mobile dental equipement and partnering with local community agencies.

Project Homeless Connect

Apple Tree is proud to support the mission work of Project Homeless Connect, an innovative program that works to end homelessness in Minneapolis and St. Paul. Apple Tree works with the agencies that organize these annual and semi-annual events and we provide our mobile dental equipment and volunteers from our staff to create a one-day mobile dental clinic. Dental care is one of Project Homeless Connect's most requested services among homeless men, women and families.

Replication Programs

Carolinas Mobile Dentistry

The American Dental Association's 2001 Geriatric Oral Health Care Award was given to Carolinas Mobile Dentistry (CMD), an organization established in 1997 through collaboration with Apple Tree Dental. Under the leadership of Dr. Ford Grant, this program currently brings on-site dental care to 1,500 nursing home residents in the Charlotte, North Carolina area. The program brings a state-of-the-art Apple Tree Mobile Dental Office to facilities so that frail elderly people can conveniently access the care they need. CMD was founded with support from the Carolinas Health Foundation, Apple Tree Dental, the North Carolina Dental Society, and the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust.

Access Dental Care

Apple Tree Dental worked with North Carolina representatives including Dr. Bill Milner, Betsy Lee, and Dr. Ford Grant of Carolinas Mobile Dentistry, to develop a mobile dental program for that state. In August 2000, the new nonprofit organization, called Access Dental Care began services in Greensboro, North Carolina. Like Apple Tree, Access Dental shares a common mission of bringing dental care to patients lacking access to regular dental care, including elderly patients and people with disabilities. Currently, Access Dental serves 46 facilities in 15 counties. Access Dental works to educate others on the lack of basic oral health care among the state's most vulnerable resdients.

Operation Smile

In December of 2000, Apple Tree received a call from Renee Ford, Dental Operations Manager of Catahoula Parish Hospital District #2 Medical Center, located in Sicily Island, Louisiana. She was seeking help in expanding their new dental program to include mobile dental care, and had heard about Apple Tree's Hawley Clinic in northwestern Minnesota.

Besides serving the Catahoula Parish, the Medical Center at Sicily Island serves the Concordia, Franklin, and Tensas Parishes in east central Louisiana. Three of these parishes are federally designated Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas. In addition to a shortage of dentists, there are a high number of low-income families in the area. The Catahoula Medical Center was looking for help, and they found it.

Partnering with Apple Tree

Apple Tree has a long history of helping others utilize the Apple Tree Model delivery system for oral health care in other states across the country. Over the years Apple Tree has designed and implemented a mobile system that includes mobile dental offices, a delivery truck system, and an integrated software system for scheduling, record keeping and billing.