Happy Toothmobile Celebrates 20 Years of Bringing Dental Care to Yuba County Children

By Ronda Bowers & Michael Roberson

For 20 years, a dental office on wheels has been traveling throughout Yuba County with a simple but powerful purpose: to bring quality dental care directly to children who might otherwise have difficulty accessing it. Known affectionately by generations of local students as the “Tooth Truck,” the Happy Toothmobile is celebrating two decades of creating healthier smiles, reducing barriers to dental care and demonstrating what can happen when community organizations work together around the needs of children.

Since 2006, nearly 6,000 children have called the Happy Toothmobile their dental home. Today, some of the children who once climbed aboard the mobile clinic as young patients are taking their own children for care.

The Happy Toothmobile began through a partnership between First 5 Yuba, Marysville Joint Unified School District and Peach Tree Health. The partners recognized that transportation challenges, limited access to providers and long waitlists could prevent families from obtaining regular dental care. Their solution was to remove those barriers by taking a full-service dental clinic directly to children.

A Partnership Built to Last

The Happy Toothmobile’s longevity is the result of a community partnership that has continued to evolve over the past 20 years.

First 5 Yuba County provided the foundational grant that helped launch the program, purchasing the mobile medical unit and funding startup costs in 2006. Its support has continued through grants for outreach, education, maintenance and program enhancements. Marysville Joint Unified School District maintains and coordinates the program, while Peach Tree Health serves as its clinical backbone, providing the dentist with two registered dental assistants and receptionist who care for its young patients.

Yuba County Public Health’s Oral Health team provides another important layer of community support, working alongside the program at resource fairs and oral health screening events and helping families learn when and where services are available.

Together, these organizations have created something much larger than a vehicle. They have built a sustainable system for bringing healthcare directly into the places where children already learn, play and grow.

A New Look—and New Technology—for the Next Generation

As the Happy Toothmobile enters its third decade, it is doing so with a major makeover. A joint grant from the Yuba County Board of Supervisors and First 5 Yuba, along with additional support from Peach Tree Health, helped provide new exterior graphics and interior cabinet upgrades.

The improvements go well beyond appearance. A Delta Dental grant during the 2025–2026 cycle funded significant upgrades to the mobile clinic’s dental equipment. Aging dental chairs and light assemblies were replaced, along with the addition of a new compressor and pump, sterilizers, digital X-ray equipment and sensors, and new dental instruments. The investment positions the Happy Toothmobile to continue providing modern dental care for years to come.

The program is also finding new ways to reach children. Recognizing that families in isolated rural portions of Yuba County can face even greater challenges traveling for care, the partnership has expanded its reach through targeted dental pop-up events and comprehensive oral health screenings at foothill schools.

Peach Tree Health Dental Director Dr. Rupaul Ghuman has played an important role in that evolution, helping develop strategies to reach vulnerable children and overcome the logistical challenges that can accompany mobile and rural dental care. His commitment to young patients has also extended beyond treatment to mentoring the next generation of dental professionals.

Twenty Years of Impact

The impact of the Happy Toothmobile can be measured in thousands of cleanings, tens of thousands of protective sealants and vital restorative treatments provided during the past two decades. But its impact can also be measured in children relieved of chronic dental pain, school days that were not missed because of dental problems, young people learning how to care for their teeth and children gaining the confidence that comes with a healthy smile.

Perhaps the most meaningful measure of the program’s success, however, is what happens when those children grow up. A partnership between Peach Tree Health’s dental team and the Marysville High School Dental Assisting Career Technical Education program is creating opportunities for local high school students to experience the dental profession firsthand. Once a month, Dr. Ghuman and the Peach Tree Health team provide dental services in Marysville High School’s dental lab. Students can shadow, assist and learn inside a working dental environment, gaining practical experience and confidence before entering the workforce.

That partnership has already produced a remarkable full-circle connection. Peach Tree Health employs graduates of the high school’s dental assisting program, and several students who have participated in the program were themselves Happy Toothmobile patients when they were elementary school children. They once climbed aboard the Happy Toothmobile to receive care. Today, they are preparing to become part of the workforce that will care for others.

Smiles for the Next 20 Years

The Happy Toothmobile’s 20th birthday celebrates far more than the longevity of a mobile dental clinic. It celebrates what sustained community partnership can accomplish. For two decades, schools, healthcare providers, local government, public health agencies, funders, educators and dental professionals have worked together to make care more accessible for Yuba County children.

The truck has changed. Its equipment has changed. Its reach has expanded. Children who were once patients have grown up, started families and, in some cases, begun careers in dental care. But the idea that started the Happy Toothmobile in 2006 remains remarkably simple: when children face barriers to healthcare, find a way to bring care to them.

Twenty years and nearly 6,000 young patients later, the Happy Toothmobile is still rolling—and still creating smiles for miles.