Due to a lack of hygienists, nonprofit rural dental services came to a standstill. The HealthHUB in South Royalton recently received a $350,000 congressional earmark to upgrade its mobile dental clinic, which currently serves the organization's school-based dental hygiene program, and to provide restorative dental care to adults in the neighborhood.
However, HealthHUB is experiencing the same issue that so many local businesses do: it is unable to begin providing services because there are not enough qualified employees.
Since training programs for registered dental hygienists were halted for two years due to the pandemic and the large number of experienced hygienists who retired as a result, there is a particularly high demand for these professionals.
According to Rebecca Foulk, MD, the founder and president of HealthHUB, "We've always had good luck finding dedicated hygienists because we offer a lot of independence and top salary to introduce dental care and oral health education to mostly low-income kids who can't get it anywhere else." However, numerous job postings everywhere we could think of have been unsuccessful.
Dr. Foulk suggested that local White River Valley dental patients might be able to provide assistance. A brand-new, mobile operatory that visits schools in South Royalton, Strafford, Chelsea, Sharon, Bethel, Tunbridge, Stockbridge, Randolph, and Rochester is in need of important work from retired or remote-working hygienists. Please let them know about it. You will be proud of your profession as a result of this cutting-edge dental care. HealthhubVT.org has a detailed description of the program.