'Tooth Trolley' delivers 200+ Vancouver kids to dentist
Rafferty Baker | CBC News | Posted: May 26, 2016 6:22 PM | Last Updated: May 26, 2016
The children are picked up from schools in predominantly low-income neighbourhoods
More than 200 elementary school children will be picked up this week by the Tooth Trolley and taken to the Vancouver Community College downtown campus to get some free dental care.
The Tooth Trolley project is part of the VCC's certified dental assistants program — it makes up part of the students' final assessment as they near the end of the 10-month program — and it gets the children a much-needed visit to a dentist.
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"We got it together, initially to provide our certified dental assisting students with patients, then we realized how beneficial it was to the children that attend, as well," said instructor Margaret Dennett, who noted that the children are checked by a dentist before her students begin their work.
Dennett, who started the program with another instructor, Sherry Messenger, is marking 10 years of the Tooth Trolley project this year.
"We know that children require care and many of the children that we are involved with come from schools we consider underprivileged who may never have had any formal dentistry."
"Some of the children are actually from refugee families," said Dennett, "In one case we had somebody in a refugee camp a month ago and then they were in the Tooth Trolley."
The trolley is provided by the Vancouver Trolley Company, which typically drives tourists around the city on sightseeing tours.
Ben Tardif, 11, who's in a Grade 6 class at Mount Pleasant Elementary doesn't like the dentist, saying the last time he visited, his "gums hurt really bad."
But he enjoyed colouring beforehand, while he waited for his turn at the clinic and riding the trolley with some of his classmates.
"It's okay. We waved at people," he said.
For Cadeo Bello, 11, from Tardif's class, the highlight was skipping math back at Mount Pleasant Elementary.
"It's too hard," he said.
Bello said he often misses out on regular dental care at home.
"We don't have any floss at my house," he said. "Sometimes we don't get home until really late — no time [to brush]."
A third classmate, Sierra Snow, 11, went on the Tooth Trolley last year, too, and said it went OK.
"It's actually my biggest fear, but it depends on what they're doing," she said of visits to the dentist.
Rosanna Ko is one of the VCC students wrapping up the program. For her, there's a little bit of stress involved in the project.
"Definitely this is an assessment," she said. "[Working with kids is] a little bit overwhelming and [I'm] a little bit hesitant, but I think once you get into it, and once you start working, you don't really have time to think about it. You only have time to react — just operate."
"Working with kids, I think it's rewarding, because you see a smile in their face. It might sounds cliché, but you do feel like you've accomplished something," Ko added.
Some VCC students were dressed as tooth fairies in their scrubs, their backs adorned with little wings. It's all part of a relaxed environment, according to Dennett.
"We have tooth fairies who escort our children from one floor to another. There's activities, stories to tell, face painting," she said.
"There's lots of smiles here. Initially they may come in a little hesitant, but when they leave they're full of smiles, and lots of hugs from our students, as well."