MobileSmiles Clinic Brings Dental Care to Guymon Residents
The University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry and the Oklahoma Dental Foundation have launched a MobileSmiles mobile dental clinic stationed at Memorial Hospital of Texas County in Guymon, offering preventive and basic restorative services to patients of all ages. The unit accepts private insurance and Medicaid, provides care from supervised fourth year dental students, and aims to expand rural access while encouraging more dentists to practice in rural Oklahoma.
A new MobileSmiles dental unit has begun serving residents at Memorial Hospital of Texas County in Guymon, delivering preventive and basic restorative dental care close to home. The clinic provides cleanings, X rays, fillings, extractions, fluoride varnish and sealants for patients of all ages and accepts private insurance and Medicaid. Care is delivered by fourth year dental students from the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry under faculty supervision as part of their clinical rotations.
Placing the unit at the hospital is intended to reach patients who lack convenient local dental services, reduce travel burdens for rural families, and connect patients who need more complex treatment to specialty clinics in Oklahoma City or Tulsa. Referrals to the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry clinics are part of the program’s pathway for patients requiring advanced care beyond what the mobile unit provides.
The initiative addresses long standing access gaps across the Oklahoma Panhandle by bringing basic oral health services into a community setting. For Texas County residents, the clinic means routine preventive care and urgent basic treatment can often be obtained without traveling long distances to the state’s larger cities. Early preventive interventions such as cleanings and sealants can lower the risk of more serious dental problems and reduce the need for emergency services.
For dental students, rotations on the MobileSmiles unit offer hands on experience in rural practice, exposing future dentists to the clinical and social realities of serving smaller communities. Program leaders intend that this exposure will help recruit more dentists to practice in rural Oklahoma, a persistent workforce challenge in the state.
The MobileSmiles presence at Memorial Hospital also complements existing local health services by providing on site oral health care and coordinating follow up when specialty treatment is necessary. As part of broader efforts to improve access across the region, the clinic aims to reduce barriers that rural residents face in obtaining dental care and to strengthen community health through regular, preventive oral health services.
