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Compassion for the Other Man Chelsea Patten, staff writer, Dentaltown Magazine

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An interview with Terry Dickinson – lifetime dentist, founder of Missions of Mercy, winner of the 2010 ADA Humanitarian Award, and regular do-gooder.
by Chelsea Patten, staff writer, Dentaltown Magazine
"I'm sure people worried about my sanity," chuckles Dr. Terry Dickinson, executive director of the Virginia Dental Association, in response to a question about his big move from Texas to Virginia in 1999. He left his comfortable home, successful practice and the city-life of Houston, Texas, in search of a missing piece he felt so strongly about finding. What that missing piece was though, he wouldn't find out until he was knee-deep in Missions of Mercy (MOM), an organization he built from the ground up.

Dickinson graduated from University of Texas Dental Branch in Houston in 1967. He spent two years in the Air Force during Vietnam, performing dental physicals on soldiers prior to their deployment and then went on to own a private practice in which he practiced for 30 years.


Dr. Terry Dickinson treating a patient at Middle Peninsula MOM, assisted by VCU student John Reynolds.
During the last five of those 30 dedicated years, he caught the career version of the seven-year itch. He loved dentistry and had a booming practice in a city he knew and loved, so he questioned the "annoying" restlessness of something missing. Sleuthing for his higher purpose, he says, "was a difficult journey."

It was in this period of time when he received a call from two friends asking him to consider the position of executive director of the VDA. He was hesitant and vacillated over interviewing and eventually living somewhere unfamiliar. "When things are good and predictable, it's easy to stay," he says. "But here I am 11-anda- half years later without any regrets."

Soon after assuming the position of executive director, Dickinson sewed together the infrastructure of Missions of Mercy (MOM), a not-for-profit means of providing dental care to the underserved working poor populations of Virginia. Although it originated in the state, 20 states now have a model of the program and it stimulated the formation of the America's Dentists Care Foundation.


Youngest Wise County MOM patient happily poses with Dr. Terry Dickinson and dental hygienists following her cleaning. The stuffed animal made the day!
Dickinson says the MOM events border on chaos. "It's organized chaos though," he says. Trucks pull up next to a facility – whether it is a high school gym, fairgrounds or a convention center – full of portable equipment and supplies. Volunteers help to unload and quickly set up. A 50-chair clinic is typical. "It's quite impressive to watch" says Dickinson about the set-up process and of the 500 to 1,000 people they are able to serve during one- or two-day clinics. To operate a 50- chair clinic, he estimates the volunteer count to be around 250 dental professionals; and upward of 400 volunteers counting the additional locals who help with registration, patient interviews and triage, food service, security and parking.

I asked him about the challenges that conducting a program like this entails. He named resources as one challenge typical of most charities, but he did not dwell on hardship. MOM gets the majority of its funding via foundations and grants, as well as through large dental companies like Henry Schein and Delta Dental. He admits seeking funding is an ongoing process. "The good news is we leverage each dollar into about $32 of patient care," he says.

"One of the problems we've never faced is having enough patients," Dickinson says as he recalls a story of once hosting a clinic up in the mountains. He worried that patients might not make the trip and expressed anxiety to the Sister in charge about the volunteer dentists not having enough to do. "The first morning of the clinic it was very foggy. We got about a mile out and traffic was at a dead stop. We had to walk the rest of the way in." The team had to turn a thousand people away that day. "The Sister came up to me and asked 'is that enough?' I've never worried about patients since then," he laughs, now maintaining a "build-it-and-they-will-come" mentality. At MOM's last big project, patients traveled from 15 different states (including Virginia).

Dr. Terry Dickinson triages Southwest Virginia patient for needed treatment.



Dr. Andrew "Bud" Zimmer, Dr. Terry Dickinson, and Dr. Ralph Howell display picture of Governor Tim Kaine presenting Dr. Dickinson with the National Governors' Association Private Citizen Distinguished Service to State Government Award.
"The thing that struck me right away is what people are willing to do to get dental care," referring to the line of patients outside the first MOM project. People are willing to stand in line for hours. Many spend the night in their cars or in tents; in cold weather; sometimes even in snow storms. "They are so desperate to get the needed dental care. It really reshapes and helps to rethink what kind of life they must live," says Dickinson.

Most of the patients treated at MOM projects do not have insurance. In Virginia, there is a limited adult benefit Medicaid program, but the state has one of the best children's programs. For this reason, 95 to 97 percent of the people treated are adults.

Dickinson and his teams of volunteers are deeply impacted by patients' life stories. In fact, he claims they are the most rewarding part of the work he does. "If you don't listen to their stories, you don't have any idea of the struggles they have." One middle-aged man came to one of the MOM projects with a severe cleft palate. He was hard to understand but Dr. Dickinson could understand he needed a denture. Unfortunately a denture couldn't be fabricated on-site for lack of lab facilities. Dickinson decided he would find help for the patient outside the MOM clinic and he spoke with a prosthodontist with whom he was acquainted. The doctor was a kind man, but a bit reluctant about doing the work as he already does a fair amount of pro bono work in his practice. Reluctant that is, until he heard the patient's story.

The patient had dropped out of school in the third grade since his classmates ridiculed him incessantly because of his deformity. His lack of education gave him few choices for work but a job in the coal mines of Virginia. With a debilitating injury in the mines, he had little hope left. This story not only left the prosthodontist changed, but changed the practice dynamic of his staff as well. The doctor now runs the prosthetics department for Missions of Mercy. As for the patient, he said of the denture: "It made me feel like a man again." The circle was complete.

"It wakes you up to what is going on out there," explains Dickinson "There are hundreds of stories for what [programs like this] do in people's lives. It's not just getting teeth out or doing fillings." The mission really helps to sustain hope in patients. Dickinson testifies many of the people who visit the clinics suffer not only from poverty of money, but oftentimes, poverty of hope. Performing dentistry helps to provide hope for their future. "It changes lives… on both sides of the equation."

Because the program has had an impact across the board, it's not hard to see why Dr. Dickinson was nominated (without his knowledge) for the 2010 ADA Humanitarian Award. Dickinson received the award and certainly deserves praises for the work he does, but he is a humble man who does good for the sake of the greater good, and that's enough for him…


Governor Tim Kaine presents Dr. Terry Dickinson with the Virginia Health Care Foundations NETworthy Award (2006).



Dr. Terry Dickinson exams Wise MOM patient and determines necessary care.
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September 2025
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