Dental News - Outreach program treats more than 3,000 people in 2018/2019 school year

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Outreach program treats more than 3,000 people in 2018/2019 school year

Dental students, faculty and community partners from the NYU College of Dentistry/Henry Schein Cares Global Student Outreach Program treated more than 3,000 patients in the 2018/2019 school year. (Photograph: wararat_photos/Shutterstock)

Wed. 31. July 2019

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NEW YORK, U.S.: Oral health outreach programs play a pivotal role in helping those who, for whatever reason, struggle to access dental care. Recently, the New York University College of Dentistry (NYU Dentistry) and Henry Schein announced that their collaboration to provide dental services to those in need had offered free therapy to more than 3,000 patients during the 2018/2019 school year.

The program, running under the name NYU Dentistry/Henry Schein Cares Global Student Outreach Program, provides oral health care education, emergency dental services, screenings, prevention, sealant application and restorative therapy to underserved communities throughout the U.S. and Latin America.

Speaking about the collaboration, Prof. Stuart Hirsch, Vice Dean for International Initiatives and Continuing Dental Education at NYU Dentistry, said, “The NYU Dentistry/Henry Schein Cares Global Student Outreach Program is designed with two goals in mind: delivering and sustaining oral health improvements in host communities and creating exceptional service-learning experiences for our students. Through our outreach, we are fulfilling a critical health need, conducting meaningful public health research, and transforming the way future oral health care providers view their roles in society.”

In addition to providing care, the program aims at initiating new methods of improving oral health in targeted communities. In assessing the oral health needs of each community, it allows real opportunities to introduce sustainable oral health systems. An example of this is the identification and training of local members of the community to provide oral health education and care on an ongoing basis.

According to NUY Dentistry, Henry Schein donates oral health supplies and materials for each outreach program. The teams use these products to provide routine and urgent dental services, such as screenings and preventive and restorative therapy for children and adults, at no cost to the patient. Speaking about the collaboration, Henry Schein Chairman and CEO Stanley Bergman said, “We are pleased to support NYU Dentistry in its efforts to provide care to remote and underserved populations around the world, offer crucial learning opportunities for its students, and build the capacity of local community partners to provide care.”

Expanding its reach beyond the U.S. and Central America, in the 2019/2020 school year, NYU Dentistry will send teams to Clinton County, New York; Pokhara and Surkhet, Nepal; Cuenca, Ecuador; and Machias, Maine. Other sites under consideration include Hudson, Windham and Malone, New York; and Cape Town, South Africa.

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