Dental Vans – a Success Story
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- Published: Tuesday, 22 April 2025 09:46
- Written by Peter Ingle
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In stark contrast to the last Government’s dental recovery plan, recently the subject of withering criticism by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) there is a recent mobile dental van success story.
Dental hygienist, Tara Pile wanted to make dental care more accessible in Devon. She has set up Dental Hygenius, a specialised mobile oral health education and treatment service, dedicated to empowering individuals through personalised care. Her mission is to deliver exceptional oral health services tailored to each client’s unique needs.
Which is where ‘Flossy’ comes in. To bring the project in on a budget Flossy, as her mobile unit is known, has been a case study in keeping costs down.
Starting out with a 1991 Compass Shadow caravan with leaky windows and a suspect floor, Mrs Pile and her husband did most of the renovation work themselves between October 2024 and February 2025. Dental Hygenius is now CQC registered and up and running, equipped for her to work to her scope of practice complete with, chair, unit and sterilisation facilities.
While Tara Pile had an image in her mind of how she wanted the unit to look when she acquired the caravan, the process had not been without its challenges. She told BBC Devon: "I bought her and my husband freaked out when I took it home and told him I was going to convert it into a dental clinic."
Tara’s dental career started over 20 years ago. After serving in the RAF as an Avionics Engineer she switched to dental hygiene, being awarded the Commanding Officers Prize for top graduate in 2007.
After her RAF retirement she project managed the opening of a dental centre in a local cottage hospital in Kenya and spent time in outreach clinics there. On returning to the UK she joined the Royal Navy and provided dental care both ashore and aboard Warships.
At present the service is limited and does not offer X-ray examination, prosthetics, or emergency care, and Tara advises her patients to see a dentist annually. However even with its present constraints the service offers people in the dental desert territory of South Devon and North Cornwall, oral health assessments with mouth cancer screening, diet and oral health advice, as well as prophylaxis. Those who are unable to travel far, or seeking treatment outside office hours, whether at home, work, or in residential care, now have a new accessible option.
Tara Pile hopes to build two more versions of Flossy to cover Devon, Cornwall and further afield. This is not the only dental van success story, but illustrates what one determined individual can achieve with limited resources. Her fees show that she is able to deliver a remarkably cost effective service that NHS commissioners could only dream of equalling.
Offering a comprehensive dental service, Smiletogether CIC and charity Dentaid already run successful dental vans that manage to reach patients previously excluded from care. All of which suggests that the recovery plan’s failure on mobile units may not be a reflection of the dental van concept, so much as the limitations of NHS England and the DHSC.
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