Loma Linda University, School of Dentistry
Loma Linda University |
2003 Facts Community Partners: Project Contact Information
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Community service is a primary objective of the School of Dentistry and an integral part of the School’s clinical activities. The School has community-based dental education sites in elementary schools, community health centers and county hospitals.
Funding from the Children and Families Commission of California allows the School to transport hundreds of very young children from remote desert areas to its facilities for specialized dental care. Additionally, the School offers senior students and pediatric dentistry residents the opportunity to participate in foreign mission trips to underserved countries such as Africa, Ecuador, Mexico, and the Ukraine.
Project Activities
- Over the next four years, the School of Dentistry will:
- Increase the number of off-site service days for all students - especially juniors and seniors - from 11 days to 60 days per year.
- Set up model clinics and increase the number of community sites where students participate in patient-centered practices.
- Expand busing program and partnerships with community clinics to treat children from remote desert or mountain areas.
- Enhance curriculum with new courses focused on “cultural competency” for students and develop training sessions with a similar focus for faculty.
- Design a student orientation and reflection component for each service activity.
- Enhance current classes in public health policy, oral public health issues, and broad-based social and behavioral sciences.
- Support recruitment, enrichment coursework assistance, and scholarship funding (where possible) to prospective “feeder” high schools and colleges with large numbers of URM/LI students.
- Develop relationships with private practice dentists who care for large numbers of the underserved who will allow for student rotations in their private practices.
- Cooperate with other California dental schools to develop health policies that will provide legislative support for community service and provider recruitment programs.
