Pittsburgh, PA-area dental practice meets patients where they are

A mobile unit helps Link the Valley bring dental care to anyone who needs it

Link the Valley’s Lisa Tovcimak has a simple but important goal: to make sure everyone has high-quality dental care, even if they don’t have dental insurance or access to transportation to get to a dental office.

She founded the practice in 2020 and today treats approximately 1,200-3,000 patients annually in the Pittsburgh area, both from her Farrell, PA office and via a mobile dental unit to multiple local counties. All services are billed directly through insurance and patients are not charged out of pocket, regardless of what percentage of their care their insurance covers.

“Good dental care is so important. Tooth pain can lead to chronic headaches, sleep problems, and many other issues,” she says. “We want to make sure that everyone knows dental care isn’t just having white teeth. It’s a vital medical need.”

Link the Valley is a winner of a 2023 Citizens Small Business Community Champion Award (SBCCA), which recognizes entrepreneurs striving to improve their community.

Tovcimak recently discussed the importance of identifying and addressing customer needs, how to navigate challenges, and ways to build relationships and enrich your community.

After receiving her degree in dental hygiene in 1994 from the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine, Tovcimak worked at several high end cosmetic dental practices. She decided to shift her career focus after hearing of a young boy who died of a dental infection in 2007, despite having insurance.

“It was very upsetting that he passed away because of something that could have been easily treated,” she says. “It felt like the ball was being dropped for many patients who have disabilities, transportation issues, language barriers, or other hurdles to getting proper dental care.”

Tovcimak obtained a Pennsylvania Public Dental Hygiene Practitioner license, which would allow her to practice in settings such as group homes, nursing homes, preschools, prisons, and substance treatment facilities. “These are places where the majority of users or residents may have Medicaid or no insurance, but still have dental care needs,” she says.

She initially worked in partnership with a pediatrician to connect with patients, but quickly realized that people of all ages needed better access to dental care. “Often, while I spoke with parents about their children’s teeth, they would ask me if I treated adults as well,” Tovcimak says. “It opened my eyes to the gap in care availability for everyone.”

This led her to start her own dental practice. Link the Valley provides a full range of preventative dental care, including fluoride, tooth polishing, oral cancer screenings, sealants on patients under age 21, tobacco use counseling, and X-rays. While she does provide care out of her Farrell, PA offices, about 80% of her work is done through her mobile unit.

One of Tovcimak’s specialties is working with special needs patients. “My own child has autism, so I understand the challenges of finding practitioners who will spend extra time with patients,” she says. “They need to have patience with children or adults who may have trouble sitting still through a typical dental appointment, or be willing to wait a few minutes extra for patients who have physical difficulties getting in and out of the office.”

Bottom line: To create unique value in a company, identify unmet needs. Look beyond just your initial target audience to identify other segments with similar needs who can benefit from your products and services.

In early 2020, like many businesses, Link the Valley was faced with challenges it did not expect. Early in the pandemic, many facilities such as nursing homes initially wouldn’t let Tovcimak come in to treat patients, because they equated dental care with non-essential services such as hair styling. “We had to impress upon them that dental care isn’t just cosmetic,” she says. “It is a healthcare necessity.

This highlights the importance of building relationships with facilities you work with, she says. “We need them to know that they can trust us to come in and give their patients or residents good care,” she says. “There’s such a huge need in places like nursing homes or prisons, where regular preventative care often isn’t routinely offered.”

Cash flow was also a challenge during the pandemic. Tovcimak used a line of credit to purchase her building. She and her office manager also agreed to defer their salaries for a short time until insurance payments from patient care came through. Small grants from the Buhl Regional Health Foundation and the Pennsylvania Department of Health also helped cover machinery costs.

Bottom line: Financing such as a line of credit or a business loan can help you handle important business expenses even when you face financial tough times. In addition to supporting you through challenges, financing is also important to ensuring that your business can seize opportunities and invest in essentials for growth.

To connect with people in the community, Tovcimak attends many public events and forums, where she hands out toothbrushes and brochures about the practice. She uses demonstrations of dental screenings to clearly explain what Link the Valley does. She also attends local events set up by insurance companies.

The practice’s mobile unit operates out of a minivan and includes a portable dental unit with everything from polishing drills to a water suction unit, and a small mobile X-ray machine that is the size of a hair dryer. Link the Valley will use The Citizens SBCC Award funds to help purchase a new mobile van to store all of the equipment that needs to be transported to each visit.

“We love getting out to see patients, because many of them would not be able to get care otherwise,” Tovcimak says. “We currently have to load and unload our equipment for each trip, which takes time away from patient care.”

One big community need Tovcimak has addressed is that children in foster care or group homes aren’t typically eligible for braces. Because they are often transferred to new homes in different cities, or even states, dentists can’t put braces on these kids’ teeth because they wouldn’t be able to follow up with care. Tovcimak found a solution in clear aligners — kids can be fitted for the aligners and then receive a kit with all the sizes they would need as their teeth move.

“If the child gets transferred, their whole two years of braces just travels with them. Then every two weeks they change out the aligners and put a new set in,” she says. “This is amazing for these kids who have been through so much in their young lives. It’s really a positive step for them.”

To help set all patients up for continued good dental care, everyone gets copies of their X-rays to take with them to future appointments. Tovcimak also helps set up transportation to other follow-up visits for additional care for those who need it, and she helps expedite care if patients can’t get follow-up appointments in a timely manner. It’s important that patients know they have someone to help them navigate the system to get the care they need, to avoid something small turning into an emergency.

“We had one little boy whose teeth were decayed down to his gumline. His mom called a dentist and was told it would be two and a half months until the first appointment,” she says. “I got on the phone, got the doctor’s office to look up the child’s record, and they took him the next morning.”

Tovcimak also speaks at preschools about what it is like to visit the dentist. She not only brings toothbrushes and stickers to give to the kids, but all the protective gear dental professionals wear as well. “We pass things like face shields and gloves around, so the kids can touch them and see they’re not scary,” she says. “Kids get to ask questions, so they know what to expect when they go to the dentist for the first time.”

Bottom line: Going the extra mile to understand and meet your customers’ needs builds trust and makes you a valuable resource. Part of delivering on a promise to be a committed community member is to find creative solutions to customers’ problems.

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