Anybody looking for proof that "Health Powers Readiness" need look no further than Dental Command-Europe's Go First Class program.
The program, which was implemented Army-wide in 2013, has raised the number of U.S. Army Europe Soldiers in Dental Class 1 -- the highest class of readiness -- from under 20 percent to more than 67 percent. Soldiers in Dental Classes 1 and 2 are considered deployable, with more than 95 percent of USAREUR Soldiers falling in those two classifications.
There are currently four dental classifications, said Col. Michael Doran, DENCOM-E commander.
"Class 4 means you need an exam -- we don't really know what your status is," Doran said. "Class 3 means you have a potential emergency, something that could bother you in the next year. Class 2 means you need routine type care and Class 1 means all your work is done.
With the Go First Class program, Soldiers seen at dental clinics are given both an exam and a cleaning during the same visit. For 40 to 50 percent of Soldiers, that is enough to get them into Dental Class 1, Doran explained. While the program sounds simple, it was a radical departure from the system in place before that, which was doing mass (exam) events where the Soldiers only received an exam and were scheduled for future appointments for cleanings and other work.
"What typically happened is they didn't come back," Doran said. "I know it's hard to believe, but some patients don't like coming to the dentist. They would come in, get their exam, and then they'd never come back, just go year to year and never get any treatment done."
Go First Class was started as a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt project at Fort Bliss, Texas, around 2012, Doran said. It was so successful that the program was rolled out DENCOM wide the following year.
In Europe, the first experience with Go First Class took place when a unit in eastern Germany returned from a deployment
"Normally they would have come back and they would have had great big mass dental exams to get them out of Class 4 because while they were deployed they converted to a Class 4," Doran said. "At the end of the day, instead of just getting an exam, they got an exam and cleaning, and the wellness numbers for the unit went right back up."
While it does take longer to do the exam, cleaning and, in some cases fillings during one appointment ( up to an hour for the process as opposed to approximately 10 minutes for just an exam), the newer process pays dividends for both the Soldier and the Army. Army dental readiness is now higher, the Soldier spends less time going to appointments, and overall dental health is improved, Doran explained.
With everything accomplished during one visit, the Soldier no longer has to travel back and forth to the clinic multiple times.
"If you go and get an exam, and then a cleaning, and then a filling, instead of going in once, it's a significant amount of time" Doran said. "We can do a lot of this stuff (in one trip) and save a lot of time and money.
Doran said few people predicted the level of success the program would have.
"It's been a lot more successful than any of us expected," Doran said. "I could probably find some old briefing I gave years ago where I said this is crazy. Why should we put the goal at 65 percent -- we're never going to reach it. I was wrong."
But for Soldier readiness, it was good to be wrong this time.
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