Mobile dental clinic takes service to Navajo Nation communities


The Winslow Indian Health Care Center in Winslow, Arizona. Photo from WIHCC

A health clinic on the Navajo Nation is reaching out to dental patients on the reservation, Fronteras reports.

The Winslow Indian Health Care Center recently took its mobile dental unit to Seba Dalkai, a remote community in Arizona. Staff treated elementary school students, some of whom might have never seen a dentist otherwise.

But dentist Darrin Blackman said trips like the one to Seba Dalkai aren't enough to address tribal needs. He's hoping the clinic can launch a second mobile unit to treat even more people on the reservation.

"That’s the thing that keeps me wanting to do it over and over and over again, is trying to make a bigger and bigger and bigger dent every single time,” Blackman told Fronteras.

Almost 70 percent of Navajo children have untreated tooth decay, according to a 2014 study by the University of Colorado.

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Dentists Overwhelmed By Tooth Decay In Navajo Children (Fronteras 2/24)

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