Military Dentists Perform Joint-Service Training

Approximately 130 medical specialists with Appalachian Care 2019 operated at the fairgrounds of Wise County, Virginia, providing dental, optometry, veterinary and general medical care for anyone. Appalachian Care 2019 is a unique U.S. military training mission sponsored by the Innovative Readiness Training (IRT) program, which falls under the Department of Defense’s Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Reserve Integration.

Started in 1994, the IRT unites service members frommultiple service branches to test deployment readiness in a hands-on settingwith the serendipitous byproduct of no-cost health care for U.S. publics inneed.

The dentists and technicians in Appalachian Care 2019 represent the U.S. Air National Guard, Air Force, Navy Reserve and Army Reserve. As reservists, many of the providers also bring professional experience from their civilian practices.

“I’ve done IRT missions before, and it’s pretty typical tothrow everybody together like this,” said Air National Guard Lt. Col. AdamKuipers, 110th Medical Group dentist, Battle Creek Air National Guard Base,Michigan. “Some of us have a lot of experience and some don’t, but that’s whatwe’re here for: to give our people exposure in areas they don’t normally get towork in and to reinforce our readiness training.”

For these providers, the challenge of leaving their normalclinics and practices to literally set up shop in a fairgrounds barnyard is anexperience that stretches, confounds and ultimately grows them into moreskilled and well-rounded clinicians. They’re rising to the occasion withvisible results including high-quality care for an average of 75 patients a day.

“Obviously, there are challenges when we’re operating in alocation other than our clinic back home, but it’s great to get together withfive or six dentists I’ve never met before and just chat about how we do ourextractions and fillings,” said U.S. Navy Reserve Lt. Cdr. Derrick Call,Operational Health Support Unit San Diego dentist. “There’s an oral surgeonhere who just yesterday gave us a tip saying, ‘if you don’t have electricalpower to use your drill, there’s another way you can sometimes do what you needto do with a set of forceps.’ I tried it on a patient yesterday and it wasfantastic; it just makes you a better clinician having these additional piecesof knowledge – things you can do to be successful.”

As a dental technician with the 88th Medical Group,Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, U.S Air Force Staff Sgt. Stephen Clarksays Appalachian Care has given him a greater appreciation for conserving andmaking the most of available resources, even in an area where he felt his skillswere already very strong. Responsible for the cleaning and processing of alldental instruments for the mission, upon arrival in Wise, Clark assessed that asufficient facility was not available to sterilize dental instruments up tostandard.

“I was able to work with services and at the fairgroundspavilion we created our own, indoor instrument processing facility inside acouple of Conex boxes, and it’s working great,” Clark said. “Looking for waysto make the best with what we’ve got, utilizing the resources available andthen turning the instruments around as fast as possible so we can maximize ourcare has been huge. After all, you can only see as many patients as you haveinstruments for.”

Other participants say Appalachian Care’s joint operationshas sparked a greater sense of interoperability with colleagues from otherbranches of the Armed Forces.

“It’s really interesting to see how different the branches are, yet at the same time, we’re still all medical, and we have that in common,” said U.S. Army Reserve Spc. Brandi Schafer, 301st Field Hospital dental technician, St. Petersburg, Florida. “It’s really interesting finding out the differences between each one, becoming more diverse in our thinking and more open-minded to other ways of doing things.”

Source: US Air Force