Community Service

Pipeline, Practice, and Profession: Community-Based Dental Education

The University of Washington, School of Dentistry is one of fifteen dental schools nationwide selected to participate in this novel five-year $15 million Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and California Endowment sponsored program. The program is designed to increase access to dental care for underserved populations and to increase recruitment and retention of disadvantaged and underrepresented minority students into dentistry.

Community–Based Clinical Training

Currently, UW 4th year dental students provide care in more than 15 community-based clinics statewide, including several clinics in Seattle, the Yakima Valley, Southwest Washington and Bellingham. The UW School of Dentistry continues to forge partnerships with community professionals and clinical sites throughout Washington as the number of days are increased that dental students deliver care in underserved areas.

RIDE Program

RIDE is a strategic expansion of the University of Washington School of Dentistry to help meet the oral health needs of rural and underserved communities in the Northwest. RIDE will create regional training sites in areas lacking dental schools by partnering with regional universities, dentists and dental associations, community health centers and others.

University of Washington Oral Health Collaborative

The UW Oral Health Collaborative creates and delivers models for oral health education and prevention that involve local partners and can be replicated and sustained at the community level to improve the oral health of underserved children statewide.

UW Dental Camp

The University of Washington School of Dentistry has teamed up with Washington Dental Service Foundation to host "Dental Camp" for adolescents from across the state. Each half-day session provides student “campers” with an opportunity to learn about oral health and dentistry by performing hands-on activities in the School of Dentistry’s simulation laboratory. This simulation laboratory is where student dentists, student dental hygienists and student dental assistants practice their skills before they begin treating real patients.