Dental Pipeline Program Helps Low Income to Get Dental Care

The Dental Pipeline program has been funded in 2001 by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The oral health program was intended to serve 23 cities across the US, including San Francisco.

In the city of San Francisco, Dental Pipeline is being operated by the Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry at the University of the Pacific.

There are two great achievements so far that are definitely worth mentioning:

• The number of students of color who enrolled in the dental school has increased significantly
• Dental students who provide care in community clinics spend much more time in doing so than ever before.

According to Dr. Paul Glassman, professor of Dental Practice and the director at Community Oral Health at Dugoni, the low income residents of San Francisco are facing many barriers when it comes to proper dental health. One of these barriers would be that the number of practitioners willing to take Medicaid is getting smaller and smaller.

Looking at the statistics presented by the U.S. Department of Health Resources and Services Administration, in San Francisco there is 1 dentist for every 5,000 citizens, which is a very unbalanced ratio.

Moreover, according to the Government, San Francisco is on the Dental Health Professional Shortage Area list.

Dental Pipeline greatly helps low income people and children to gain access to proper dental care.

The California Endowment is funding the Dugoni School so that it can continue to carry on its Dental Pipeline programs throughout the community.

Those interested to find out more about the oral health services provided by the Dugoni School, can freely call on the following number: 415-929-6501.