YOUR SPACE: She's a plaque-fighting Hometown Hero

Twice a week, Michelle Vacha kisses her sons goodbye, grabs her tools and boldly goes where few dental hygienists have gone before.

Seven nursing homes.

She’s a hygienist on a mission: saving teeth of the elderly.

The plaque-fighting superhero turns her mommy car into a toothmobile. Complete with its own dental chair.

For her nonprofit work, she was chosen a Hometown Hero by the Pikes Peak Chapter of American Red Cross. In coming weeks, I’ll profile other heroes. More will be featured on my blog: http://yourspace.freedomblogging.com/

Three days a week, Michelle, 44, works as a mild-mannered hygienist at Dr. Richard Cea’s Springs Dental Care office.

The job pays for her superhero alter ego — and the $15,000 second mortgage she took to start Senior Mobile Dental in 2007. The money paid for a dental chair and tools. She also hired two hygienists.

Like any hero, she relies on a trusted sidekick, her husband, Mike, who hauls the chair from their garage on rounds with her inside nursing homes.

“I bring everything you find in a dentist office,” she says.

Her passion was stirred while working in the retirement town of Prescott, Ariz. She was shocked by the conditions of what she saw in the mouths of nursing home patients.

“They have some of the worst oral problems I’ve seen,” she says. And most were preventable problems if someone would just help.

“If they still have their teeth at this stage, it shows they’ve taken care of their teeth,” she says. “So why should this change? If you keep the mouth healthy, you can keep other parts of the body healthy.”

Her entire life has revolved around a dental chair.

The Arizona native was one of those weird kids who enjoyed going to the dentist. (Unlike my daughter, who just had her wisdom teeth out.)

“I had a great dentist and hygienist growing up. They were my mentors,” Michelle says.

In 1999, looking for city life and romance, she came to Colorado Springs on the advice of a dental patient. A blind date, set up by a patient here, led her to meet Mike.

He’s more valuable than Robin ever was to Batman.

While Michelle does the paperwork in the unfinished basement of their home, Mike is a stay-at-home dad tending to sons, Brett, 6, and Wade, 5. (And hauling that dang chair everywhere. Come to think of it, maybe Mike should win as Best Sidekick.)

Seriously, Mike is everything she ever wanted in a mate: Same religion. Nonsmoker. Softball player.

He even flosses.

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For information: seniormobiledental.com

To see YouTube video of Michelle: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sz2eIBrZ8-E