More than 2 million people visit emergency rooms each year for dental emergencies and toothaches. Emergency rooms do not have dentists on site to treat dental emergencies so they are forced to provide temporary solutions. Emergency room providers are only able treat the symptoms by prescribing antibiotics and/or painkillers. Many low-income, uninsured patients cannot afford to see a dentist for the problems causing them pain and instead suffer in silence or continue going to urgent cares and hospitals.

VINA works with local hospitals and urgent cares to find and treat these patients through a referral system. Once their emergent needs are met, they remain a patient at VINA and are able to get preventative care to avoid future pain or infections. This increases overall quality of life as patients are able to get the root of the problem treated and avoid taking unnecessary painkillers and antibiotics. The program benefits both the patients and local emergency rooms as return visits for dental pain decrease and hospitals can better allocate their resources. This is especially important during COVID-19 so patients can decrease their risk of going to an emergency room and hospitals have less patients in the waiting room.  

This program is recognized by the American Dental Association as a Model Emergency Dental Program.