The Tooth Truck

The mission of the Ronald McDonald Care Mobile of the Ozarks, fondly known as the "Tooth Truck" is to provide dental treatment and prevention education for children who qualify for the free and reduced school lunch program and have no access to care due to financial and transportation challenges. We provide dental services on a mobile dental clinic, primarily in school-based settings, and a qualified child is never turned away due to lack of Medicaid coverage. Throughout the process, our goal is to complete every childs treatment plan and do everything possible to increase each childs self esteem. The Tooth Truck is a joint project between RMHC of the Ozarks Inc and the Tooth Truck, Inc. and has provided 64,805 dental appointments for 30,595 children since July 8, 2002. This dental treatment is valued at $21,751,804. In 2022, the Tooth Truck provided $1.7 million in dental treatment for 1,517 children through 2,529 dental appointments. The Tooth Truck launched a daily onsite Tooth-brushing Program for early childhood education students at one school in 2011. By the end of 2020, 5,146 children were participating in the program at 27 schools and 8 nonprofit organizations. The program was formally named the Healthy Smiles Academy in 2015. Due to COVID-19 related concerns, the program did not operate in 2021. In 2022, the program resumed in December with 50 participants.