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Pre-doctoral Training in General, Pediatric & Public Health Dentistry

FY2010 Abstracts

 Arizona

A.T. Still University, Arizona School of Dentistry & Oral Health (ASDOH)
Project Director: Jack Dillenberg, DDS, MPH
5850 E. Still Circle
Mesa, AZ 85206-3618
Phone: (480) 219.6081 
Fax: 480.219.6180
Grant Number: D85HP20045

As a value-added option to ASDOH’s community-focused Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) training track, the dual-degree DMD/Master of Public Health (MPH) track has been developed within the ASDOH DMD/MPH Workforce Development Initiative: Producing Oral Health Leaders for Community Health Centers (CHCs) and Public Health Settings. In partnership with a successful MPH program at ATSU’s School of Health Management (SHM), ASDOH’s intent is to produce oral health professionals who emerge as leaders in enhancing patient access and improving oral health outcomes, particularly in CHCs and in other underserved/public health settings. ASDOH officials view this dual-degree initiative as a first critical step toward potentially transitioning all ASDOH dental students from the current public health certificate requirement to a full-blown dual-degree requirement, which underscores the greater transformational potential of the project. The patient population to be impacted by this project’s trainees includes thousands of vulnerable/underserved patients annually at ASDOH’s dental clinics, CHCs, Indian Health Service (IHS) clinics, and other public health care settings.

 Florida

University of Florida
Enhancement of Predoctoral Dental Education at UF to Meet Oral Health Needs of Diverse Populations
Project Director: Frank Catalanotto, DMD 
Department of Community Dentistry and Behavioral Science
1329 SW 16^th Street, Room 5180
Gainesville, FL 32610
Phone: 352-273-5970
Fax: 352-273-5985
Grant number: D85HP20030

The purpose of this application is secure HRSA funding to plan, implement and evaluate several proposed curricular changes to be made in the predoctoral general dental educational program at the University of Florida College of Dentistry (UFCD) to enhance the ability of our graduates to meet the oral health care needs of an increasingly diverse, economically needy and dentally underserved population. This proposal contains seven curricular projects that are consistent with the purposes of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of2009 and the Patient Protection and Affordability Act of2010- to address health professions workforce shortages with an emphasis on general and pediatric dentistry. Titles of the seven projects are: a) Enhancement and expansion of the existing behavioral sciences curriculum; b) Enhancement and expansion of the existing public health dentistry curriculum; c) Enhancement and expansion of the existing UFCD Summer of Learning Program; d) Implementation of an Infant Oral Health Clinic; e) Retention of the University of Florida Area Health Education Centers A IT AC-IT (AHEC Tobacco Training and Cessation - Initial Training); f) Enhancement of the predoctoral dental student community based rotations; g. Evaluation of Changes in Cultural Competency and Ethical Sensitivity. One of the long term goals of the proposed enhancements of the UFCD predoctoral curriculum in this proposal is to increase the sense of Cultural Competency and Ethical Sensitivity of graduating dentists to better equip them to deal with a more diverse patient population; this should result in improved access to oral health care for underserved patient groups.

 Illinois

American Association of Public Health Dentistry (AAPHD)
Development and Implementation of a Model Curriculum for Pre-doctoral Dental Students to Acquire Competencies in Dental Public Health
Project Director: Ana Karina Mascarenhas, BDS, MPH, DrPH
3085 Stevenson Drive, #200
Springfield, Dlinois 62703
Phone: (217)529-6941
Fax: 617-683-6381
Grant number: D83HP19949

The American Association of Public Health Dentistry, in collaboration with its partners the American Board of Dental Public Health, Indiana University School of Dentistry, Nova Southeastern College of Dental Medicine, Creighton University School of Dentistry, Association Chapter Advisors and other dental professional organizations across the United States, proposes to address the need for dental students to demonstrate competencies in the specialty of dental public health through the development of a pre-doctoral model curriculum designed to provide those core competencies. This project will be developed by a consortium of experts in dentistry, public health, and education. The project will develop competencies and target a curriculum for pre-doctoral dental students and dental hygiene students.

The American Association of Public Health Dentistry (AAPHD) was founded in 1937 with the purpose of furthering oral health with a stated mission of prevention of oral diseases, promotion of health and expansion of dental public health knowledge. Public health dentistry is an aspect of the dental profession concerned with improvements in the population's health, as opposed to focusing on clinical oral health needs of the individual. There is a critical need for dentists to value and utilize the public health approach to preventing and controlling oral diseases as well as managing programs dedicated to meeting the needs of the underserved.

National data show that access to dental care for disadvantaged/underserved populations is inadequate and there are few dental professionals with a clear understanding of the potential impact of the public health approach to disease prevention. According to a recent study conducted by the Pew Institute 20% of children in the United States lack access to dental care and nearly a fourth of adults have untreated tooth decay. The overarching goal of this project is to develop a model pre-doctoral core curriculum in dental public health that will result in increased public health awareness, and improved knowledge and skills of dental students. Four objectives with related activities are proposed:

Objective I: Develop a set of core dental public health competencies for pre-doctoral dental and dental hygiene education.

Objective II - Develop a model curriculum based on the previously determined core competencies for pre-doctoral dental and dental hygiene students.

Objective III - Conduct pilot programs to test the curriculum at dental and dental hygiene schools.

Objective IV - Establish a Speaker's Bureau through AAPHD of instructors who can provide training on the model pre-doctoral dental public health curriculum to educational institutions throughout the United States.

 Iowa

The University of Iowa College of Dentistry
Project Director: Dr. Steven M. Levy
N328 DSB, University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242
Phone: (319) 335-7185
Fax:(319) 335-7187
Grant number: D85HP20039

This grant application requests funding to develop, implement, and evaluate a new combined degree program allowing dental students at the University of Iowa to pursue the MS degree in Dental Public Health, while earning the DDS degree, over a combined 5-year training period. There is a substantial shortage of specialists in Dental Public Health, and relatively few individuals are willing to forgo their earning opportunities on completion of dental school to train for 2-3 more years to obtain DPH training. This is largely due to the high costs of higher education, and dental education in particular, and substantial debts that so many dental students accrue. There are very few opportunities to obtain general public health training (MPH) in combined programs while in dental school, and there are no joint programs for the DDS/accredited DPH specialty training. The combined program to be developed/implemented will streamline the process and reduce training time at the University of Iowa from 6-7 years to ~5 years. It also will allow for reduced debt load due to the program’s partial payment of tuition/fees and trainee stipends. The program will include delivery of current courses from the post-doctoral MS in DPH degree program, including both semesters of DPH Field Experience, with special scheduling consideration for the dental students. New seminars will be developed for these trainees, and they also will attend currently existing program seminars. One invited guest lecturer will come to teach each semester. New graduated outreach service learning experiences will be developed for the D-1 and D-2 years, and D-4 extramurals will be enhanced. Trainees also will attend our regional DPH annual conferences and receive support to attend the National Oral Health Conference annually.

 Massachusetts

Tufts University, School of Dental Medicine
Project Director: Wanda Wright, RN, DDS, MS, MSD
One Kneeland Street
Boston, MA 02111
Phone: 617-636-3646
Grant number: D85HP20035

Tufts University School of Dental Medicine (TUSDM) seeks to establish a new multidisciplinary curriculum of graduate study leading to a combined Doctor of Dental Medicine and Master of Public Health Degree (DMD/MPH).  The proposed curriculum will prepare students to assume leadership roles at the interface of dentistry, medicine, and the health care system.  This program will develop leaders with the comprehensive vision and philosophy needed to address a broad spectrum of public health needs not only in Massachusetts but nationally and internationally.

This project brings together the complementary expertise and vision of TUSDM and the Department of Public Health & Family Medicine (DPHFM) of Tufts University School of Medicine in a collaborative project that will: 1) improve access to quality oral health care through appropriate preparation, composition and distribution of the health profession workforce, and 2) improve access to a diverse and culturally competent health professions workforce.  

There is a tremendous need for this type of dual expertise in the dental profession including:  1) the need to do more to eliminate oral health disparities, 2) the lack of integration between oral and general health, 3) an inadequate supply of dentists with public health training, and 4) a lack of diversity among the health professions workforce. In this type of climate, the field of dentistry will be best served by individuals with formal training in public health and who also understand the basic conditions for ethical and responsible dental health care.

Most of the resources needed to implement the DMD/MPH program are already in place at the University. The Department of Public Health & Family Medicine currently offers a 48 credit hour combined MPH programs in medicine and veterinary medicine. The MPH program is accredited by the Council on Education in Public Health (CEPH). The DMD program is accredited by the Committee on Dental Accreditation (CODA) of the American Dental Association and the DMD program satisfies all educational requirements for licensure.

The target population for this project is dental students interested in formal training in public health with a special focus on students from diverse and/or disadvantaged backgrounds. The program provides students with educational training in cultural competency and health literacy. Students also receive extensive training in caring for individuals with special needs. Our goal for growth of the program includes collaboration with Meharry Dental School to develop a joint Dental Public Health Residency Program. We plan to submit an application to the Committee on Dental Accreditation (CODA) for the next deadline, October, 2010 and anticipate a September 2012 start date.

 Nebraska

University of Nebraska Medical Center, College of Dentistry
Service-Learning and Inter-Professional Education Dental Project
Project Director: Dr. Kimberly K McFarland
40^th and Holdrege St., 
Lincoln, NE 68583
Phone: (402) 472-1399
Fax: (402) 472-5290
Grant number: D85HP20046

Access to dental care, especially for rural and underserved populations, is a growing concern both nationally and in the State of Nebraska. During the next decade, U.S. dental workforce studies indicate that 2 dentists will retire for every one that graduates. Nebraska dental workforce studies indicate that 30% of the dentists plan to retire by 2013. Of the 1,011 professionally active dentists in Nebraska, approximately 34% (350) practice in rural communities.

The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC), College of Dentistry (COD), is the main source of general dentists for rural Nebraska. Eight-five percent of the rural dentists in the state are COD graduates. Currently 20 of the 93 counties in the state have no dentist. An additional 30 counties have only 1 or 2 dentists who are near retirement age. By the year 2015, it is anticipated almost half of the counties in the state will likely have no dentist.

To address this challenge, the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) College of Dentistry (COD) is expanding its Service-Learning (SL) program to include Critical Access Hospitals (CAH’s), implementing a new Inter-Professional Education (IPE) program, and developing a tele-health network. The purpose of the project is to provide oral health services and expertise to rural and underserved populations as well as develop an inter-professional healthcare workforce to serve the oral health needs of the region.

By training all members of the health care delivery team in oral health and making rural health rotations a permanent part of the dental school training experience, oral health expertise will be available throughout the state. The ultimate goal of the COD is to provide a network whereby every Nebraskan is no more than 90 miles from oral health expertise. 

 New York

Columbia University College of Dental Medicine
Training Dental Sudents for Community-based Primary Care Across the Lifespan
Project Director: Burton L. Edelstein
601 W 168th Street, Suite 32, 
New York, NY 10032
Phone: 212-342-3550
Fax: 212-342-8558 
Grant number: D85HP20031 

The profession-wide training problem addressed by this pre-doctoral application “Training dental students for community-based primary care across the lifespan” is the longstanding deficit in experiential adult learning needed to:

1. imbue dental students with an understanding of the primary care and community health contexts of their profession, (the “big picture” issue) and
2. plan to shape their dental careers in ways that incorporate substantial ongoing primary care for the underserved (the “how to” issue).

This effort provides learning opportunities through three Objectives:

1. DDS-MPH expansion: Support two dental students in each of five years to pursue Columbia University’s dual degree DDS-MPH program. This five-year program includes satisfaction of requirements for both degrees, guidance and close mentoring by SSBS faculty, and a practicum project that links dental and public health training.
2. Curriculum Change: Curricular enhancements of existing pediatric, adult, geriatric, public health, and practice management pre-doctoral coursework through development of five self-paced, web-based learning modules over five years that address specific vulnerable populations, their oral health needs, and options and opportunities to address their care.
3. Extramural Experiences expansion: Supported experiential community-based learning experiences for 110 pre-doctoral students in each of five years that engage them directly in service to underserved populations through Head Start for young children and families, the Harlem United Community AIDS Center FQHC for socially and medically compromised adults, the Isabella Geriatric Center for older adults, and similar local programs.

During each of five years, the Columbia University College of Dental Medicine’s Section of Social and Behavioral Sciences, which is responsible for teaching dental public health and practice management, will join with the College’s Division of Pediatric Dentistry, Section of Adult Dentistry, and Program in Geriatric Dentistry to engage four classes of 80+ dental students each year, including 7-9 underrepresented-in-dentistry racial and ethnic minority students in each class (10-11% of students).  These activities support the training mission of the Title VII health profession training in primary care dentistry program; the access mission of the Health Resources and Services Administration; and the federal targets for oral health identified in Healthy People 2010.

 Oregon

Portland Community College
Training to Treatment
Project Director: Josette Beach, M.S., RDS
12000 SW 49th Ave.
Portland, OR 97219
Phone: (503) 977-4235
Fax: 503-977-8300
Grant number: D85HP20042

Portland Community College’s (PCC) Training to Treatment project will embed a restorative curriculum into the existing Dental Hygiene program at the College. Alarming rates of tooth decay, particularly among our most vulnerable populations, indicate that there is a great need for more providers who can treat this condition at the national, state and local level. Oregon has responded to this need by passing a law which expands the role of dental hygienists to include restorative dental treatment. Employers are now demanding this competency among their dental hygiene workforce. 

PCC’s students need restorative training in order to meet the demand for hygienists with this certification. This project will embed a 13-credit restorative curriculum into the dental hygiene coursework at PCC. The clinical portion of this training will take place at the PCC Dental Clinic, which serves uninsured patients in the community. Dental hygiene students will be able to accommodate 400 restorative appointments per year for patients who would otherwise not have access to treatment. Throughout the five-year grant period, a total of 96 hygienists will be trained and certified in restorative dental hygiene. These students will go on to practice throughout the state, increasing access to care for all Oregonians. 

This program is particularly important given the low cost of tuition at PCC relative to other dental hygiene training programs in the state. PCC’s affordability enables us to attract a high rate of minority students, and we intend to build on our strong performance in this area during the grant period by examining admissions procedures and seeking out ways to increase enrollment from traditionally underrepresented groups. 

Training to Treatment is an important project that will improve training and employment opportunities for our students while simultaneously expanding access to care at the PCC Dental Clinic throughout the state. It will address the problem of poor oral health by increasing the number of providers in Oregon who can treat tooth decay in its early stages.

 Pennsylvania

Temple University-Kornberg School of Dentistry
Project Director: Dr. Mark L Helpin
3223 N. Broad St.
Philadelphia, PA  19140
Phone: 215-707-6191
Fax: 215-707-1989
Grant number: D85HP20040

Temple-Kornberg School of Dentistry (TUKSOD) and its Department of Pediatric Dentistry are committed to addressing the crisis in oral health in the US and to supporting the goals of Healthy People 2010. We are a major institution of professional education and have recently recommitted ourselves as an urban center for care of the most vulnerable populations, minorities, those at high risk for oral disease, and those for whom access to care is difficult, especially those who reside in the HPSA areas surrounding TUKSOD. We are dedicated to creating innovative models and improving previous models of care to address problems with the current health care system. We are committed to primary prevention and home care, oral health and nutritional literacy, and early examinations and interventions for children, their families, and pregnant women. Regular periodic care will also be emphasized. All programs will embrace the need for cultural/ethnic sensitivity. This project will help us establish new programs for care of infants and young children, improve our current clinical programs, increase the workforce, strengthen public health initiatives, and improve the quality of care for children by training better-prepared professionals. These should have a positive impact on the goals of Healthy People 2010 and many aspects of the oral health crisis. TUKSOD is also dedicated to creating a larger oral health.

To achieve our goals and objectives, we will: 1) implement a new Infant Care Program; 2) provide care for pregnant women; 3) educate predoctoral students in the care of infants and young children; 4) improve current comprehensive clinical care programs for children and adolescents; 5) educate Pediatric Dentistry, AEGD, and Pediatrics residents in a new paradigm for oral health care; 6) emphasize early intervention and primary prevention, and oral health and nutritional literacy; 7) increase awareness of socio-cultural, racial/ethnic, and economic influences on behaviors in the target populations. In order to reach the target populations, TUKSOD will partner with several agencies, organizations, and institutions who advocate for children. The vast majority of patients for whom we expect to provide care will come from the two HPSA designated areas that surround TUKSOD, and from the agencies and organizations with whom we are collaborating. The school itself is located in the midst of these HPSA regions.

We are certain we have the ability to conduct the proposed programs, if it can receive the requested funding support. Faculty and staff with knowledge, skill, and experience in these undertakings will implement this project, which we expect will become self-sustaining.

University of Pennsylvania, School of Dental Medicine
Expanding Public Health Experiential Learning in Pre-doctoral Dental Education
Project Director: Joan I Gluch, RDH, PhD
Robert Schattner Center, 240 S. 40th St.
Philadelphia, PA. 19104
Phone:215-898-5279
Fax: 215-573-9606
Grant number: D85HP20034

Access to oral health care remains problematic for many individuals in the United States, such as children, those individuals from low income and minority backgrounds, and older adults. Workforce initiatives to improve access to care have focused on increasing the number of oral health professionals in public health dentistry.  This proposal is designed to increase the knowledge, skills and experience of all second year dental students in public health dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania, School of Dental Medicine (UPSDM) and to provide an optional honors experience in public health for a selected number of talented students at UPSDM.  This dualistic approach provides both a broad exposure to public health dentistry for all dental students and a more intensive, honors experience for those students who express more specific interest in a career in public health dentistry.

For the first phase, funds are requested to increase seminar and community based experiences in the required Public Health 612 course for all D2 students.  Specifically, 6 additional hours of community experiences and 4 additional seminar hours will be added for a total of 36 hours (24 hours of lecture/seminar and 12 hours of community experiences) in the newly revised 612 course.

For the second phase, this project requests funds to develop a honors program for 8 D3 and 8 D4 students that includes a twenty hour seminar course and intensive 120 hour community field experience beyond that offered to all dental students.  We also request funds to expand dental student participation in the dual degree DMD/MPH program at the University of Pennsylvania by providing stipends and tuition support for dental students for the MPH portion of tuition.

We also request funds to enhance and formalize interdisciplinary community site placements for students in the newly revised 612 course, honors track and DMD/MPH program.  We will establish and staff a dental facility within Sayre Health Center, and will work with four existing interdisciplinary community based programs affiliated with the University of Pennsylvania,  including the Homeless Health Initiative of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and Puentes de Salud, United Community Clinics and University City Hospitality Coalition, all operated by faculty and students from the School of Medicine, with interdisciplinary participation from the Schools of Arts and Sciences, Dental Medicine, Nursing, and Social Policy and Practice.  A comprehensive program evaluation will be developed and implemented, with a focus on process and outcome variables, including program operation, the impact of program on students and community members, and perceptions of dental and other health professional students and graduates regarding public health practice.

University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine
Preparing Dental Students to Serve in Rural and Underserved Areas of Western Pennsylvania
Project Director: Allen A. DiPalma
3501 Terrace Street
Pittsburgh, PA 15261
Phone: 412-648-3052
Grant number: D85HP20047

We wish to increase the number of graduates of the University Of Pittsburgh School Of Dental Medicine who choose to practice dentistry in underserved regions of the Northern Appalachian regions of western and central Pennsylvania and surrounding areas in West Virginia, eastern Ohio, and southern New York.  Our objectives are twofold. We will improve the existing Service Learning Program, which instructs through meaningful service-based experiences to underserved communities, by including all fourth-year dental students for the first time. By taking the program from an elective to a required program, we will increase participation from roughly 20 dental students per year to 80. We also propose to broaden our program to include enhanced training in cultural competence and experiential learning in community-based clinics.  We believe that the inclusion of advanced students in our program will increase their level of comfort in the delivery of dental medicine to high need and low access populations, and heightened cultural competency will dismantle existing barriers that impede graduates from having the skills and desire to practice dental medicine in rural and other underserved communities. We will also expand participation in and improve the curriculum of the Dual Degree Program in dentistry and public health (leading to concurrent DMD and MPH degrees). We are one of the few programs in the US offering concurrent DMD and MPH degrees. The combination of DMD and MPH degrees will allow our graduates to serve in public health leadership positions. MPH graduates will be prepared to practice in such areas as public and private health agencies, clinical practice, academic or instructional settings in the community, and in other research and teaching organizations.

 Texas

The TAMUS HSC Research Foundation - Baylor College of Dentistry
Expanded Pre-doctoral Training in Public Health Dentistry
Project Director: Dr. Daniel Jones
3302 Gaston Avenue Dallas
Texas 75246
Phone: 214-828-8350
Fax: 214-874-4555
Grant number: D85HP20036

The primary goal of the proposed project is expansion of the public health dentistry curriculum and community-based clinical training rotations (including general and pediatric dentistry) for pre-doctoral dental students at Baylor College of Dentistry (BCD). This project will build on the existing collaboration between BCD and Community Dental Care (CDC), a non-profit dental provider operating 12 community clinics in under-served areas of Dallas County. BCD dental students and residents already have limited rotations at one CDC clinic, which will be expanded in the proposed project. The primary target population at the clinics will be children, comprising 68% of the patient population at CDC clinics. Texas leads the nation in the number of uninsured children, and Dallas County leads the state; in 2006 29% of Dallas County children were uninsured and lacked private, Medicaid, or C.H.I.P. coverage; this figure is projected to rise to 33% by 2010. There are 730,000 children in Dallas County and more than half have limited access to primary and preventive dental care. Secondly, the current BCD pre-doctoral didactic curriculum in public health dentistry will be expanded for third year students, in preparation for the community-based clinical training in the senior year. A service learning component centering on the community-based clinical training experience will be incorporated into the didactic curriculum for senior students. Students will meet in focus groups to discuss their experience in the rotations, and topics such as career opportunities in public health dentistry, potential loan repayment opportunities, access to care, delivery models for dental care, becoming a Medicaid dental provider, etc. The third component of the project will be the expansion of the BCD summer preceptor/fellowship program, in which students are placed in community dental clinics, PHS/IHS facilities, FQHCs and other non-profit dental clinics throughout Dallas and in other cities across Texas and the nation, providing dental care in these settings under the supervision of the supervising dentists of the facility, who are appointed as BCD adjunct faculty.

University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, Dental School
Project Director: David Cappelli, DMD, MPH, PhD and Jane E. M. Steffensen, MPH, CHES
7703 Floyd Curl Drive, MC 7917
San Antonio, TX 78229-3901
Phone: 210-567-3186
Fax: 210-567-4587
Grant number: D85HP20041

The San Antonio Dental Public Health and Diversity Pre-Doctoral Education Program in the Department of Community Dentistry, University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio (UTHSCSA), Dental School is focused on addressing the oral health needs of persons living in Texas, especially in South Texas along the Texas-Mexico border region. The creation of a dental public health infrastructure and competent dental public health workforce is necessary to develop strategies that assure oral health equity and reduce oral health disparities in the South Texas population.  It is through the education of a competent and culturally responsive workforce that this program seeks to address these ever-widening gaps in oral health and disparities in access to oral health services.

The Clinical Prevention and Population Health Curriculum Framework provides a structure for organizing curriculum, monitoring curriculum, and communicating within and among professions. The Framework was developed for educators in the health professions by the Healthy People Curriculum Task Force convened by the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine and the Association of Academic Health Centers. This framework serves as the basis for the pre-doctoral curriculum that is described in this application. The purpose of the San Antonio Dental Public Health and Diversity Pre-Doctoral Education Program is to maintain and improve a comprehensive pre-doctoral dental public health curriculum and promote an academic climate that leads to a more knowledgeable dental public health workforce. This curriculum will serve as a model for other dental and dental hygiene institutions to enhance their curriculum in dental public health. 
 
Strengthening the capacity of the dental public health workforce is critical to the implementation of core public health functions and assuring the provision of oral health services to vulnerable populations. To contribute to a competent workforce that is capable of meeting oral health needs, three projects are identified that will accomplish the goals of the Program.

Project 1 Goal: Continue the development and integration of a comprehensive dental public health curriculum that spans all four years of dental education.

Project 2 Goal: Increase dental student diversity and enhance the academic climate and learning environment that promotes diversity and dental public health.

Project 3 Goal: Develop opportunities for dental students to participate in a concentration track in primary dental care and dental public health within the pre-doctoral curriculum.;

The aim of the San Antonio Dental Public Health and Diversity Pre-Doctoral Education Program is to infuse an appreciation of public health dentistry and the outcomes of evidence-based public health practices and to develop a pipeline of dental students interested in pursuing a career in dental public health. The focus of this Program is to strengthen the public health dentistry component of the pre-doctoral dental curriculum through the application of didactic education and public health literature into community-service learning experiences. Another goal of the Program is to recruit into dentistry a diverse cadre of students with a piqued interest in dental public health to pursue related careers that can address the oral health needs of vulnerable and underserved children and adults within their communities, primarily in South Texas. The Program plans to cultivate culturally competent professionals with education in dental public health who can address oral health disparities through evidence-based services to populations bearing a disproportionate share of disease and disability.