UT Health Sciences News: Where Dental Care Isn’t Reaching, They Go

Teresa O'Daniel was killing time.

It was a stretch of downtime between visits to Margaret Newton Elementary School and a Lake County middle school, and she found herself scrolling through what health services might exist in the area surrounding Tiptonville, Tenn. A name she didn't recognize popped up, a rural ministry. She called. The woman who answered asked if she was really from UT.

She was. And the rural resource's dentist had just retired.

"One thing just leads to another," says O'Daniel, a dental hygienist and assistant professor at the University of Tennessee Health Sciences College of Dentistry. "I like people, so I like going and meeting and talking."

That instinct has built something significant.

Read more on the UT Health Sciences News website.