Community Outreach - A School of Dentistry Tradition

Helping those in need in communities across Michigan is nothing new for the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. For more than half a century, the School has been active in “community outreach” dentistry. For example...

Photo courtesy of Dr. Jack Bates

• In the late 1930s, under the auspices of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, senior dental students participated in one-week “field trips,” as they were called, to county health departments in southwest Michigan.
• In the 1950s, dental and dental hygiene students provided oral health care to inmates at the Michigan State Prison in Jackson and the Federal Correctional Institution in Milan.
• During the 1950s and 1960s, dental hygiene students participated in the Michigan Health Department’s Summer Fluoride program.
• In the 1960s, students began traveling to the Bay Cliff Health Camp northwest of Marquette during the summer to address the oral health needs of developmentally disabled children and adolescents.
• During the summer of 1972, dental students began providing oral health care to migrant workers and their families from mobile dental units (vans) in Adrian and Stockbridge, Michigan. The following year, the program moved to classroom sites in the Traverse City area.

In the spring of 2000, the community outreach program underwent a major transformation. Building on the success of these earlier initiatives, the program grew, both in terms of its length and the number of sites involved. Instead of taking place during the summer, dental and dental hygiene students, during their final year of their studies, began participating in community outreach dentistry during the academic year (late summer to early spring). Dental students now travel to eight community dental clinics across Michigan and, working alongside partners at each site, provide care for a total of four weeks, typically in one-week rotations. Dental hygiene students also participate in a single-week rotation. Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) residents and residents in specialty programs, such as pediatric dentistry and endodontics, are also involved.