Somebody bought a lot of smiles this year to the Maui Oral Health Center. The center provides affordable and accessible oral/dental health care to the under-served, low-income, uninsured families of Maui. The MOHC opened in 2002 with the charitable donation of used equipment from local dentists. The age of the equipment and the variations in models made maintenance and repair expensive and sometimes impossible.

But a local foundation that wishes to remain anonymous recently donated $100,000 to the center so it could acquire new dental chairs this year.  The new chairs are key to the center so it can continue to provide oral/dental health care services.

UHMC Dental Assisting and Dental Hygiene students try out the new chairs. Photo courtesy of the University of Hawaii Maui College

“Everyone on the UHMC Dental Program faculty, the staff and patients for the Maui Oral Health Center would like to express their MAHALO to the donor for this extremely valuable gift,” said Nancy Johnson, UH Maui College’s Allied Health Department Chair.

The Maui Oral Health Center is a collaborative project sponsored by the members of the Maui County Dental Health Alliance, University of Hawaii Maui College, the County of Maui, Hui No Ke Ola Pono and the Maui District Health Office (Department of Health). On average, the center serves 800 to 1,000 Maui County residents each month.

The MOHC is scheduled to move to a new site on the UH Maui College campus once the new science building has completed construction. The entire dental program will move into the renovated space, bringing the new dental chairs with them.