Tis the Season of Change…
Hi everyone, it’s Parker here again, the Executive Director of Compassion Dental. I hope you and your family had a very Merry Christmas and are looking forward to 2023. Happy New Year!
Compassion Dental’s ~ 2023 Paradigm Shift
As we celebrate our ninth (9th) Anniversary this December, I am reminded of just how “good” our God is, and how He has directed and blessed this Ministry over these last nine years; 22 known patient salvations; over a million ($1,000,000) dollars raised in our community, allowing us to deliver Free Dental Care to nearly 2,000 uninsured low-income adults, providing them with healing dental treatments, a renewed self-confidence, and a beautiful “renewed” smile.
As we’ve indicated in previous emails, God has been using this post pandemic period to lead Compassion Dental into serving our community in a much larger way than we could have ever imagined. We are being led to start a full-time Free Dental Urgent Care Clinic, in our current location, as soon as possible in 2023, and with a full-time paid compassionate and loving dental staff. Wow!
Vision of Hope for 2023 and Beyond ~ Passion
Compassion Dental’s passion has always been and forever will be… to help the poor, heal the hurting, and compassionately care about people. In order for us to help the 75,000 uninsured and Medicaid Insured veterans, senior citizens, and adults in Northern Nevada we need to change the ways we are providing our Free Dental Care.
Using a strictly volunteer dental professional staff is no longer feasible or an option if we are to really fulfill our Mission and help all those suffering in pain from oral gum disease, infection and dental tooth decay. Our dental clinic advisors have indicated, if we were to operate a full-time Free Dental Urgent Care Clinic with a full-time paid staff in our current location, we could significantly help more patients receive urgent dental care treatments, possibly even 5,000 patients annually. Now that’s a paradigm shift!
And the costs for the full-time dental staff (operating five days per week), the Free dental care and supplies for all the uninsured and Medicaid Insured adult patients, and the administrative costs to manage and operate the clinic and the ministry are estimated at Three Million ($3,000,000) Dollars annually. Now that’s the impossible!
It is going to be exciting and humbling to see God orchestrate this change, but miracles are God’s currency and the impossible, His trademark.
Please note: Once we have the full-time Urgent Care Clinic operating we will always need and continue to utilize volunteer dental professionals to work alongside our paid dental staff, to operate our Urgent Care Clinic remotely and on Saturdays, and to grow our Outpatient Program, using their generous hearts and dental offices to treat more patients, pro bono.
Recap of 2022 ~ Thank You for your Support
Your monthly support has been instrumental in keeping Compassion Dental operating this past year.
We were able to…
build a Patient Prayer Wall on our website that all who visit may pray for those in need.
install a “Library of Hope” bookcase filled with books, allowing patients to select Christ centered books, Bibles and reference materials, free of charge.
start our new Outpatient Program this past summer, whereby our patients, accompanied by a Compassionate Companion, are able to visit a dental office whose dentist has signed up to treat our patients pro bono.
enjoy a stunningly beautiful day of sunshine, along with lots of fun, laughter and prizes at our charity golf tournament in October, which generated about 25% more in profit than last year. So thank you to ALL our Sponsors, Raffle Donors, Dedicated Volunteers, and Players who supported and contributed to our tournament’s success this year.
provide 20 patients with healing dental treatments this year.
register over 20 dentists for our Outpatient Program, getting three of them signed up thus far, and treating 5 patients already who otherwise would not have been treated in 2022;
Oral Healthcare Crisis in NN ~ Eyes Opened
Our State’s oral healthcare systems for our communities’ poor and indigent adults, even for the Medicaid Insured adults, is completely broken.
Oral healthcare for adults is so “out of sight out of mind” that even most medical and dental professionals, hospitals administrators, and State Government Officials in charge of solving this Crisis, have little to no clue how deep and wide the chasm of the poor and forgotten has really grown, post COVID.
No adult in our community, no matter their economic condition, should have to face the reality of having nowhere to turn for dental care help! Those suffering sit in our pews, work in our businesses, serve in our communities, and are our valued veterans and senior citizens, but all are considered outcasts by our State’s oral healthcare systems because they are too poor to pay the high costs of dental insurance or dental urgent care.
As a result of the Crisis, there are over 8,000 Emergency Dental Visits (“EDV”) to our area hospitals each and every year in Northern Nevada, the majority of which are adults. And according to the Federal Government’s own data, it costs our hospitals over $5,400 per EDV to treat them with pain medicine and antibiotics, and then they’re sent home without any actual dental treatment. Over Forty Million ($40,000,000) Dollars (and it’s growing) is being wasted each and every year in NN because no one is being healed in the hospitals, only temporarily medicated! By law, the Federal Government reimburses the (waste) hospitals for each EDV every year, and the cycle repeats!
Tears, Time, Talent, and Treasure ~ Help Needed
Change is difficult. It is slow and costly. No one really likes change…and besides, status quo is the avenue of ignorant bliss. Right? We are being led to step out in faith and obedience. We are hoping your passionate heart has been stirred by what you’ve read, and you will join us and come along side us and support our Mission in 2023 and beyond. Will you partner with us in helping the “least of these?” (It is what we are asked to do…)
Right now, more than ever, we need prayer warriors, volunteers, advisors, and donors, so please consider what you can do to help us get our Free Dental Urgent Care Clinic up and operating. If you’d like to Volunteer in any capacity or Donate to our Mission, please click on the links in this email and fill out (any) one of the Volunteer Information forms on our website and tell us about yourself and how you would like to help Compassion Dental. Or you can contact me personally through my contact information provided below.
We Need: Prayer Warriors; Professional Dental Volunteers and Advisors; Ministry Stewards; Patient Companion Volunteers; Patient Relations Administrators and Volunteers; Strategic Financial and Dental Operational Partners; and Monthly & One-Time Financial Supporters and Donors.
May God bless you and thank you for taking the time to read this email and for prayerfully considering how you can help Compassion Dental Make-A-Difference Today!
JS Parker, Executive Director
Compassion Dental
DIRECT: 775.771.2955
EMAIL: PARKER@COMPASSIONDental.ORG