Awa rds & A chievement s
Penn Dental Medicine Awarded $650K Grant to Expand Community Outreach
Penn Dental Medicine has been awarded a $650,000 grant
from Delta Dental of Pennsylvania and its affiliates to expand the
school’s community outreach efforts. The grant will support
PennSmiles, the school’s long-standing oral health education
and clinical care program for school children and their families
in West and Southwest Philadelphia, providing funds for a new
mobile dental vehicle as well as the operational costs for
educational programs.
The school- and community-based oral health education
component of PennSmiles launched in 2000 in partnership with
the School District of Philadelphia, and since 2003, Penn Dental
Medicine students and faculty have also been providing
comprehensive dental care aboard the PennSmiles dental bus.
The funding will enable Penn to replace the existing 14-year-old
PennSmiles bus with a modern, new dental bus. Presently,
the PennSmiles program works with 24 pre-school, elementary,
and middle public and charter schools in the neighborhoods
within approximately 24-square-miles of the University of
Pennsylvania. In the current academic year, all predoctoral
dental students participated in Penn’s service-learning courses
in community health, which include the PennSmiles education,
preventive, and dental care programs. The Penn service-learning
courses allow dental students to gain practical experiences in
community settings while providing much-needed oral health
education and dental care in the West and Southwest
Philadelphia communities.
LEGISLATIVE CHECKUP WEEK
September 11-15
For good oral health, you recommend your patients see you twice a year. For good
legislative health, we recommend you visit your local legislators at least twice a year.
Schedule An Appointment with your local representative and senator the week of
SEPTEMBER 11-15 in their hometown offices and see how they score on our issues.
You can even coordinate with your colleagues to make these visits together.
You’ll get to rate how “healthy” they are on our issues. Will they get a clean bill of
“health” or need follow-up and care?
PDA will supply all the information you need for you to prepare and make your
visits a success.
Questions? Need information? Contact Marisa Swarney, director of government
relations at (800) 223-0016, ext. 116, or mss@padental.org.
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