University of Florida, College of Dentistry

The University Of Florida College Of Dentistry is the only publicly-funded dental school in the State of Florida and is a national leader in dental education, research and service. Our students and faculty participate in interdisciplinary learning and research that benefits the college and its patient community, and also results in a well-rounded curriculum that produces dentists skillful in the art and science of dentistry. The College of Dentistry educates the state’s future dentists and dental specialists through 16 degree and certificate programs. Each year the college admits a new class of about 80 D.M.D. students who are among the top pre-dental students in the nation.

The college is nationally recognized for its oral health research enterprise, emphasizing infectious diseases in dentistry, bone biology, pain and neurosciences, and translational research to improve clinical and dental care. The college has a multi-faceted service mission encompassing patient care and community outreach and education. Through its Statewide Network for Community Oral Health, the college is one of the largest providers of low-cost dental care in Florida providing nearly 10 percent of all indigent care to Florida’s residents through comprehensive state-of-the-art clinical services. In 2007-08, a contract with the Department of Health entitled "Enhanced Indigent Care" was used to offset network costs related to patient care delivery for low-income and indigent patients. Our students and faculty also give of themselves in providing free dental treatment to underserved populations during service missions abroad and at home.

Project Activities
The RWJ Round 2 Dental Pipeline grant has served as a tremendous overall catalyst for improvement in both accesses to dental services in our network and enhancement of clinical education for our students. Our goal to increase senior student extramural rotation time from four weeks to six weeks was initiated with our summer semester in April 2008. An additional two weeks will be added in year 2 of the grant. In conjunction with this increase in extramural experience we will be implementing an RVU (Relative Value Unit) method of tracking all student clinical experiences during their education at UFCD. This will be partially implemented in April of 2008 with full implementation occurring as we transition to a comprehensive care clinical model of education in August of 2008. Four additional didactic hours have been added to the curriculum to more fully prepare students for their extramural experiences. These will be taught in seminar style sessions commencing in fall 2008 and will cover topics including background demographics and enhancement of communication in a clinically relevant setting, as well as safety net dental care.

We have targeted Duval County, Florida as the site of our initial expansion for numerous reasons. It is an economically diverse metropolitan area with a large patient base that is significantly lacking dental resources for the vast majority of its residents. We have identified outstanding partnership potential with the I.M. Sulzbacher Center for the Homeless, Shands Jacksonville Hospital, Duval County Health Department, and Northeast Florida AHEC. These partnerships are ideal in that they will provide an exceptional clinical and social learning experience for our students.