Mobile dental clinic rolls out free appointments for young women in need

Victoria -

A mobile dental clinic in Victoria is creating local partnerships to offer free teeth cleaning services for marginalized young women.

Wheely Clean has partnered with Support Network for Indigenous Women & Women of Colour to secure free appointments for women under age 19 and members of marginalized or visible minority groups.

“Especially low-income, racialized women, they don’t have privilege to visit a dental clinic and have their teeth checked out,” said SNIWWOC, Program Manager, Kaoruko Sasaki.

“We’ve been talking about how important our dental health is. It’s essentially connected with our overall health, including our mental health.”

On Sunday, the fully functioning, mobile dental hygiene clinic was at The Punjabi Akali Sihk Temple on Grahm Street, for its first six appointments, offering preventative oral hygiene care.

“If you haven’t been to the dentist in a really long time, it can be hard to get back into the saddle, whether you’ve got anxiety or other barriers,” said Wheely Clean owner Danielle Ayotte.

“Just getting people into the clinic, having a look in their mouth, seeing what’s going on … the hope is that people will feel empowered on their oral health journey.”

Wheely Clean is offering up its time on site free of charge, and the Sikh temple is covering costs associated with the cleaning and supplies, through Khalsa Aide.

“I would love to see preventative oral health service covered by the provincial or federal (governments), something within there that everybody can access – at the very least – cleanings every year.” Ayotte said.

SNIWWOC and Wheely Clean have set up one free dental day each month until December.

The support network says it saw an overwhelming response the initiative and had to close applications, while creating a waitlist.

Wheely Clean says it is hopeful it will create enough lasting partnerships to keep the initiative running.