Where the Rubber Hits the Road

After graduating from high school in the mid-80s, Deanna Alexander, RDH, began working as a file clerk in the office of a dentist who provided oral care for Detroit elementary schools. She describes it as her first taste of mobile dentistry. Since then, Alexander worked in a variety of dentistry-related capacities, until her passion for dentistry led her into a dental hygiene career. Shortly after obtaining her dental hygiene license in 1990, she started a dental placement service geared toward providing temporary staffing for dental offices. 

“I saw the need, so I set out on a mission to make a difference in dentistry,” says Alexander, who recently took the time to tell us about her unique delivery of oral healthcare, most recently aided and abetted by Ford Motor Co and Delta Dental and their Motor City Kares initiative, a $500,000 investment in minority-led businesses.

1. After earning a master’s degree in 2015, you worked in continuing education. What motivated you to broaden your scope of expertise in this direction?

I finished my bachelor’s degree in 2010 and went on to earn a master’s degree in education and liberal studies at the University of Detroit Mercy College of Liberal Arts and Education. Upon graduating, I was eager to exercise my skills in teaching.

After training under Rhonda Mize Dunaway of Anderson & Associates, which offers onsite dental continuing education courses, I provided Occupational Safety and Health Administration training to dental office staff for compliance. I was also an adjunct dental assistant instructor for a short time at Dorsey Career School. 

But my passion in dentistry is patient care and education. Hygiene on Wheels offered me the opportunity to do more in the dental hygiene profession and to make a difference. 

2. When did you start Hygiene on Wheels and what gave you the idea?

I founded Hygiene on Wheels in 2011, using a small portable unit. It was a community outreach program providing oral hygiene education and care. I started in my community, my focus being to educate the public on preventive dental health care and offer resources for additional care if needed. I’m driven to make a difference in helping to address an urgent need of dental care for the underserved children in our Detroit communities. Everyone deserves access to oral health care.

3. How did you pull it together financially? 

Before partnering with Ford Motor and Delta Dental through a grant, I funded my vision of Hygiene on Wheels through donations and my personal finances. As a recipient of a Ford Transit van customized mobile dental clinic and entrepreneurial mentoring by the team at Motor City Kares and the Lightship Foundation, I will have the opportunity in 2022 to realize my vision of bringing access to oral health care to the doorsteps of children and families in low-income neighborhoods. 

4. What do you see as the greatest barriers to adequate oral health care in the communities you serve? 

Geographic location, poor oral health literacy—and affordability. The cost of dental care is the major barrier at all income levels. 

Not enough providers are willing to serve this population. The cost of doing business and student loan debt make it almost impossible for most dental providers to care for low-income patients. Other factors include low reimbursement rates and high no-show rates. 

5. What is your hope for the future of oral health care?

That dental hygienists be given opportunities to operate more independently. By allowing them to offer basic preventive dental care, at-risk populations could be better served. Mobile dentistry is the perfect platform for bringing oral care to the community.