General Info About CTMOM Volunteer Opportunities Become a CTMOM Sponsor 2008 CTMOM Press Room Special CTMOM Newsletter About Mission of Mercy: The scenarios faced during MOM projects will both break and warm hearts. It is an opportunity to come face to face with the people who have nowhere else to turn. For many individuals living on small incomes or without dental insurance, dental care is a luxury that they cannot afford. Many go for years, sometimes even decades without seeing a dentist. In rural communities with a significant impoverished population, individuals (primarily the working poor, the elderly, the disabled, or the uninsured) are often left without any dental care, and face extreme pain, discomfort, and embarrassment. In response to the lack of access to care and the resulting poor oral health of thousands of indigent citizens, the Virginia Dental Health Foundation launched the first Mission of Mercy (MOM) in 2001 and began to “make caring visible.” Mission of Mercy (MOM) projects have broken two and three day records for the largest dental outreach clinics ever conducted in the United States. Since the inception of the program, $7.4 million of free dental care has been delivered to more than 18,000 Mission of Mercy patients. In addition to Virginia programs, MOM programs currently exist in Kansas, Texas, and Nebraska. In 2007, Colorado will have its first MOM project. Connecticut and Iowa are planning MOM projects for 2008. Mission of Mercy projects are conducted in identified, underserved areas where there are not enough dental practitioners to adequately address the oral health needs of the community. Any individual who is able to show up on site is considered eligible. The intentions of Mission of Mercy projects are not to judge, but rather to serve. The need for charitable dental care in Connecticut is no different. Ironically, thousands of Connecticut residents have difficulty accessing dental care, for the same reasons faced by others in less affluent states. For this reason, the Connecticut State Dental Association (CSDA) had thier own first Mission of Mercy project, that took place on April 12-13, 2008. There is no answer for the provision of dental care for adults on the horizon. For this reason alone a MOM project will provide care to those who have no hope of receiving care through our present health care system. The numbers of adults and children are staggering and it is the hope of the Connecticut Dental Association to help those in need of oral health care. CTMOM 2008 Photos Photo gallery coming soon! CTMOM clinic COHI at the patient exit interview table CTMOM volunteers l-r: Josephine Bicknell,CSDA Community Out Reach Coordinator, Dr. Bob Schreibman,CTMOM Co-Chairman, and Carol Dingeldey, CSDA Executive Director. CTMOM volunteers Channel 3 WFSB: CTMOM Media Sponsor