Texas A&M College of Dentistry
Students at the Texas A&M College of Dentistry thrive on clinical experience with real patients and their Clinical Love nearby—about five blocks from the college—he needed dental care providers. It was a perfect match, but much more than just practicing their dental techniques, the students learn about the importance of seeing that all of their patients’ health care needs are met because Agape also provides full medical care.
Although dental students have been providing checkups for pediatric patients at the clinic for some time, patients can now receive comprehensive dental care—everything from routine cleanings to fillings and extractions. Agape is just the latest example of the College of Dentistry’s commitment to community service and increasing access to oral care in North Dallas.
For several years now, the College of Dentistry has used Medicaid funding 1115 Health Transformation Waiver to provide dental care to three non-profit clinics in north Dallas;: Shared Ministries of North DallasThe Irving Community Clinic and Healing Hands Ministries. Through the same funds, the college was able to purchase $600,000 in dental equipment and chairs to fill the half of the Agape Clinic’s ground floor dedicated to dental care. Long term plans are to provide fixed and removable prosthodontics, with crowns, bridges and full dentures.
“We had too secured grant funds from the United States Health Resources and Services Administration that allowed us to pursue interprofessional training for both predoctoral and postdoctoral students,” said Paul Hoffmann, administrative director of extracurricular clinics at the college. Students and faculty screen their dental patients for common conditions such as diabetes and hypertension and ensure they are referred to the appropriate medical staff for treatment. “At the same time, on the medical side, the intake staff ask patients about their oral health and refer them to us if they haven’t seen a dentist in the last year. It was perfect to introduce this holistic care model to Agape.”
Holistic care includes behavioral and mental health services, and even social services such as insurance assistance.
The current number of patient visits to Agape each year averages around 10,500, but this number is expected to double. “It’s working great,” Hoffman said. “Traditionally we have had an artificial separation between dental and medical care. It’s great to teach our students that this doesn’t have to be the case.”
Students seem to appreciate the connection. “As modern health care moves toward a more comprehensive approach to reducing overall costs, it is vital that students are adequately exposed to these trends,” said Talon A. Davis, a third-year dental student who recently completed his rotation at clinic. . “Working at Agape makes it clear that they take an integrated approach to medical treatment and that no discipline is more important than any other, which provides us with a unique opportunity to learn the nuances of dentistry in terms of both individual treatment and wider systems care”.
“Many of the patients we see at Agape are referrals from other nonprofits that may serve the chronically homeless, refugees, women who have escaped abusive environments — and even though the patients come with a variety of personal histories, one thing is true for all of them : never had access to quality dental care,” said Stephanie Bohan, executive director of Agape Clinic. “Our patients regularly stop me and hold my hand with tears in their eyes and thank me because they know that one day they will be smiling proudly. The impact of this program has been profound in improving and changing the future for so many, and because of the College of Dentistry, they have the hope of first a better smile and then a better life!”
This story was originally published on Vital record.
