Power of partnerships: Dental institutions' efforts to address access to oral care in underserved populations

Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General (2000) found “profound and consequential oral health disparities within the U.S. population.” Underserved Minorities (Blacks, Hispanics, and American Indians) and the medically disabled had the least access to dental care and the poorest oral health. One strategy for improvement has been the National Dental Pipeline Program funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. From 2001 to 2010 twenty-three dental schools developed community-based clinical education programs, revised dental school curricula to support these programs, and increased recruitment and retention of underrepresented minority and low-income students. Since 2001, several new dental schools have opened and there are additional schools and potential community partners that can benefit from additional in-depth understanding of the lessons learned in these programs. To that end, in 2011, the Dental Pipeline National Learning Institute (DPNLI) was launched as a year-long training institute to support dental schools and their community partners in implementing community based-dental education programs and on recruiting, admitting, and retaining underrepresented minority students. The purpose of the DPNLI is to support and encourage the establishment of community partnerships that: improve access to quality dental care, create greater system efficiency, and reap the benefits of communal partnership with local organizations. The proposed presentation highlights key program components and discusses academic community partnerships as a means for immediate and long-term impact on reducing access disparities by recruiting and admitting more students from dentally underserved communities, thereby alleviating health care provider shortage areas.