Jackie Jones thought her dream was over, until she got a phone call in July.

That dream was Miles of Smiles, a community dental center Jones started at the end of 2006. The center was to act as a base for a mobile dental unit that would bring dental care to the under-insured in Cayuga County. But after half of a year, the project was put on hold because of financial reasons.

That was when she got a call from American Mobile Dental.

“It was a unique twist of fate,” said Jones, who now helps run American Mobile Dental's Cayuga project in the former Miles of Smiles office on Genesee Street. “I sat there and said ‘What are we going to do?' But someone we served from Onondaga County called American Mobile Dental and said that Miles of Smiles was no longer around.”

Picking up where Miles of Smiles left off, the Mamaroneck-based company started operations in Cayuga, Tompkins and Onondaga counties last month. The goal is to have a mobile clinic in the area twice a week, as well as assist public service organizations around the county, Jones said.

An American Mobile Dental clinic is essentially a dentist's office on wheels, complete with professional dentists, hygienists and state-of-the-art equipment. The difference is that patients, especially those on Medicaid and Medicare plans, have easier access, Jones said. They are not going to the dentist, the dentist is coming to them.

The concept is important in rural counties, Jones said, where access to oral health is limited. In Cayuga County, 13,000 patients rely on Medicaid and Medicare, and only a small number of dentists can take them. Many either have to travel to Syracuse or Rochester for checkups and treatments, while many others just do not go.

That is why Jones started Miles of Smiles in the first place, she said. And with the new company have come new resources.

“The concept is the same - providing quality dentistry to the undeserved,” Jones said. “But they had what we wanted to create. Before we had portable equipment. Now we have a whole portable office.”

That portable office recently checked up on local children at Cayuga Seneca Community Action Agency's Head Start program. Head Start is a preschool program for about 70 children ages 3 and 4 who have income-eligible parents. Miles of Smiles had served the program twice in the last year, giving checkups and cleanings to the children.

The goal of bringing the program was to show the children early on the importance of good oral hygiene, said CSCAA Health and Nutrition Coordinator Carol Trzaska. And like many of the county's undeserved, finding a dentist is a definite problem for many of the families with children in the program, Trzaska said.

“A lot of people are working part-time or low-income jobs,” she said. “For someone who can't get insurance or can't fit it in, this is a dream come true kind of thing.”

Trzaska said she has noticed an improvement with American Mobile Dentist, which stopped Jan. 31 and Feb. 1 at the preschool. When Miles of Smiles came, they performed check-ups and cleaned teeth, she said. Now, because there are dentists on the mobile clinic, the children can also receive any needed treatments instead of having to be referred to another office.

Trzaska said most of the children's teeth are looking pretty good. It is amazing what a couple of regular visits from the dentist can do, she said.

“To me, that attests to the program. It shows it has been very effective,” Trzaska said.

While American Mobile Dental will serve clients of all ages, Jones said their youngest patients are some of the most important. Healthy - and unhealthy - habits usually begin at an early age.

“It sets the tone for these children for years to come,” Jones said. “It plays a key role in expressing the fact that dental health is important.”

Staff writer Christopher Caskey can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or christopher.caskey@lee.net.