Dental School uses grant money for community outreach

Last month, Penn School of Dental Medicine expanded its involvement with the local Philadelphia community by launching a new initiative promoting oral health.

Known as the Community Oral Health Sealant Pilot Program, the initiative aims to provide 120 children with dental sealants — plastic barriers applied to the surfaces of molars to prevent tooth decay — by the end of March 2010.

According to Instructor Jill Ann Klischies, the sealant program reflects the Dental School’s ongoing commitment to schoolchildren in West Philadelphia.

It will function as a “significant complement” to PennSmiles, an existing dental care program that provides comprehensive dental treatment to schoolchildren from a fully-equipped van, Division Chief of Community Oral Health Robert Collins wrote in an e-mail.

“[The sealant program] will prove to be a win-win for both the community and our students,” he wrote. “Prevention of disease is of course key to our being able to extend more services to the community.”

From their first year onward all dental students are required to participate in community activities as part of their coursework, which is reflective of the school’s community service focus.

“As a first-year student, you may not have the clinical skills — but you can educate the community,” explained Community Health Director Joan Gluch.

First-year students lead classroom education and health fair activities, along with a wide range of other educational programs. In contrast, third and fourth year students do most of the clinical care.

“Schoolchildren have required dental exams at certain grades, so we go out to the schools and complete the dental exams … these community experiences really form an essential component of learning to be a dentist,” Gluch said.

The School has partnered with approximately 20 Philadelphia schools, three of which expressed an interest in piloting the dental sealant program prior to its inception.

The program will be visiting the Lea Elementary School through the rest of December and plans to see students at the Bryant Elementary School and Alexander Wilson Elementary School over the course of spring semester.

Gluch added that dental students have been involved in “every step” of the program.

“We’re getting their feedback about implementation, and they’re involved in the training,” she said.

In preparation for the program, the School held dental sealant training for third-year students, who will administer the sealants, earlier this fall.

The program also entails assembling portable dental equipment inside each school in a classroom or nurse’s office. Thus far, two complete sets of dental equipment have been installed, and 25 to 30 school children have been treated.

Gluch characterized the program as an “excellent way” to supplement the dental care that has already been provided to children at both the Dental School’s pediatric clinic and the Penn Smiles’ Van.

She added that the Dental School is interested in expanding the dental sealant program to include more of its partner schools in the years to come.

“Our goal is to increase access to dental care for all children,” she said.

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