Answering the Call of Katrina Kim Crawford, Editor Dentaltown Magazine

Special thanks to Nicholas G. Mosca, DDS, Dental Director, Mississippi State Department of Health and Captain James Tennyson, DDS, Dental Team Leader, U.S. Public Health Service

Katrina caused enormous damage to homes and businesses throughout Mississippi, particularly in six counties in the Gulf Coast region. The 30-foot storm surge left many of those living in that area without clothes, food, clean water, medication, and access to healthcare.

“The most appropriate description I can give is that it looked like pictures that I have seen of the aftermath of the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of World War II,” said Captain James Tennyson, DDS, Dental Team Leader, U.S. Public Health Service. “Houses were reduced to piles of rubble and businesses faired no better. One patient said that his temporary crown had come off after the storm was over and he’d gone to his dentist’s office only to find that there was ‘nothing there but a concrete pad with some pipes sticking up out of it.’”

The Mississippi State Medical Association estimated that half of the 700 physicians practicing in Mississippi’s coastal counties were impacted, and the Mississippi Dental Association reported that over 80 dental offices were partially or completely destroyed. To address this health need, the Mississippi State Department of Health(MSDH) arranged for temporary healthcare facilities to assist those affected, many of whom were service workers in Mississippi’s coastal tourism industry, or people who worked in the fishing industry, or small business owners.

On September 11, the MSDH deployed a volunteer mobile dental van from Birmingham, Ala. to Waveland, Miss., one of Mississippi’s hardest hit communities, to supplement the ongoing relief efforts at Caroline 1, the North Carolina State Medical Assistance Team base. Waveland’s entire local government, police, fire, and school infrastructure were destroyed. This mobile dental van, owned by Dr. Mark and Beth Buckner, was positioned next to Carolinas MED-1, a mobile hospital provided by the state of North Carolina. More than 300 people were seeking medical care each day, and the physicians were visibly thrilled to learn that emergency dental services would be available due to the number of dental emergencies seen prior to the dental van.

During the first week of operation, about 40 patients were seen daily in the two-chair facility, augmented with portable dental equipment outside of the van under a tent.

One day a FEMA worker came by and checked the temperature inside the tent. “I was working inside at the time,” Dr. Tennyson said. “The FEMA worker asked, ‘Does it feel like it’s 107 degrees in here, Doc?’ to which I replied, ‘No, it feels more like 170 degrees!’”

The clinicians soon realized they would need a much larger facility to accommodate the growing patient demand. With the assistance of the American Dental Association Foundation, Nicholas G. Mosca, DDS, Dental Director, Mississippi State Department of Health met Jason Krause, Project Manager with dental supply company Sullivan-Schein, the U.S. dental division of Henry Schein Inc., which offered Tomorrow’s Dental Office Today (TDOT), a fully-functional, technology-driven dental office of the future, for use as part of MSDH’s disaster relief efforts. This was in spite of the fact that it was supposed to be in Philadelphia at the American Dental Association’s Annual Convention.

“I was initially awestruck at how large and modern this facility was compared to my expectations,” said Dr. Mosca. “For example, TDOT would allow us to work in air-conditioned comfort while Mississippi’s heat raged on outside, and take digital panoramic radiographs for diagnostic purposes. Sullivan-Schein also donated a very large amount of dental supplies and purchased desperately needed dental instruments for our use. With the support of the USPHS, Sullivan-Schein, and federalized private dentists, over 60 patients were seen each day in Waveland.”

“We were able to set up our two portable chairs inside the spacious mobile clinic for extractions and used the two top-of-the-line dental units that were a part of the clinic for restorative work,” Dr. Tennyson said. “The excellent digital x-ray equipment cut our wait time significantly, since we were able to view our radiographs immediately after exposure. Sullivan-Schein’s gracious donation of space and material allowed us to ease the suffering of significantly more patients in the time that I was there.”

TDOT provided care to more than 619 patients during this outreach.

“I am also very appreciative of the efforts of the U.S. Public Health Service in deploying dental providers who showed skillful compassion and concern for our citizens,” Dr. Mosca said. “Words cannot describe the devastation to our communities; I am thankful that we had these strong working relationships to help make a difference in the lives of those affected.”

Dental equipment used in TDOT includes products from Air Techniques Inc.; Takara Belmont USA Inc.; D4D Technologies Inc.; Dentrix Dental Systems, a division of Henry Schein Inc.; GE Healthcare; Gendex Corp.; HOYA ConBio; KaVo Dental Corp.; Matrx, a division of Midmark Corp.; Midmark Corp.; Pelton & Crane, a division of Danaher Corp.; SciCan Inc.; and Steelcase Inc.

Katrina: “Nothing Could Have Prepared Me...”

I reported to Waveland, Mississippi on September 17, 2005 as the U.S. Public Health Service Dental Team Leader. I had been through Waveland and Bay Saint Louis many times on my way to Biloxi and Gulfport while stationed in Louisiana. I had been to Biloxi days after Camille hit back in 1969, but nothing could have prepared me for the total devastation wrought by Katrina.

There’s an AWFUL lot of need down there, and the people need every bit of help they can get to get through this. People keep asking if we did anything different as far as procedures than at our regular duty stations. Some officers keep saying, “No,” but they fail to realize that, when they finished their regular patients, those patients got in their cars, drove to their houses and cooked their dinner with their families. After that, they watched their favorite TV programs in their dens with all their family photos displayed on their mantles. Our patients in Waveland did not have those luxuries, regardless of their income level or social status. When we finished their treatment they walked back to a tent city, some of them with 500 to 1,000 other people sleeping in the same tent, and many tents were not air-conditioned. They ate a meal that had been prepared by some government entity or a charitable organization that had no interest in what their favorite foods were or what time they preferred to eat. If they were lucky enough to be in a tent city that has a television, they got to watch whatever was on, or not watch TV at all. They no longer had high school yearbooks to look at, or pictures of proms and children’s birthday parties. All of their family heirlooms were gone, the pictures of babies, birthdays, graduations, and grandparents, living or dead... everything. This was a MAJOR difference. Anything that would make their situation more bearable needed to be done.

Volunteer with the Medical Reserve Corps

In the aftermath of hurricane Katrina, placing dentists who were willing to volunteer their services was a logistics concern. In order to receive tort coverage and workman’s compensation, dentists had to become temporary federal employees by signing up on the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Katrina Medical Volunteer Web site. I contacted DHHS to determine how to deploy these volunteers and connected with the U.S. Public Health Service to deploy “federalized” volunteers and Commission Corps staff.

While DHHS is no longer accepting volunteers for the Katrina disaster, you may still sign up for the Medical Reserve Corps in your area. Please visit, www.medicalreservecorps.gov for more information.