Community Outreach / Service Learning

Students complete instructional lessons with children and adults at schools and community centers

Students visit community health centers and social service agencies, and participate in oral health education and care as part of the interdisciplinary care team.

Students provide clinical care at each of Penn Dental Medicine’s five community health clinics during Spring Semester of their third year.

Students provide clinical care at each of Penn Dental Medicine’s five community health clinics during Summer and Fall Semester of their fourth year.

This seven-week summer interdisciplinary health internship is open to students between the first and second years of dental school. Dental students attend one day of community health classes and work four days in a community setting with an interdisciplinary health care team to complete a health promotion program. Paired with medical, nursing, social work and/or veterinary medicine students, dental students work with community partners at one site to develop and implement community health programs to meet community needs, and present a poster of their project at the annual Bridging the Gaps symposium.

Dental students and Pediatric dental residents work with the Homeless Health Initiative of The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia at four homeless shelters in West Philadelphia. Working with medical, dental and nursing staff, students and residents provide health education, oral health assessment and referral for dental care to women and children residents at the shelters.

Located at First African Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, UCC provides primary health care on Monday evenings. Dental students work as part of the interdisciplinary care team with Penn medical, nursing, and social work students and faculty and provide oral health education, examinations and referral for dental care with community members attending UCC.

UCHC is a non-profit organization that provides meals to homeless and hungry individuals, as well as key social services, in University City six days per week. On Wednesday evenings at the Episcopal Cathedral in Philadelphia, Penn Dental Medicine staff, faculty and students work with Penn medical, nursing, social work and law students and provide health education, oral health assessment and referral for dental care as part of the weekly interdisciplinary medical clinic, dental clinic and legal clinics at UCHC.

Mercy LIFE (Living Independently for Elders), located at 4508 Chestnut street, provides interdisciplinary medical, dental, behavioral and pharmacy services for elders living in West Philadelphia. Modeled after the national program of all-inclusive care for the elderly, Penn Dental Medicine faculty and students provide oral health education, and diagnostic, preventive, restorative, prosthodontic and surgical dental care as part of the interdisciplinary care team at Mercy LIFE. In Fall 2020, Penn Dental Medicine increased its dental footprint to four dental chairs in a new third-floor dental suite as part of the day services provided to Mercy LIFE participants.

Located at 1700 South Street, Puentes de Salud provides medical and dental care, as well as health education and outreach services, to nearly 9,000 patients in the Philadelphia area, most from Mexico and other Latin American countries. United by their desire to increase access to quality care, Puentes staff includes a wide range of interdisciplinary care providers and students fluent in Spanish who provide care in in a culturally relevant and sensitive manner. Penn Dental Medicine faculty and students provide oral health education, and diagnostic, preventive, restorative and surgical dental care in the three chair dental facility at Puentes de Salud and provide expedited referral for specialty dental care at Penn Dental Medicine’s clinical center at 240 South 40^th Street.

The Dr. Bernett L. Johnson Sayre Health Center is a full service, federally qualified primary care community health center located at the south side of Sayre High school at 227 South 59^th Street in West Philadelphia. Penn Dental Medicine first allied with Sayre Health Center in 2011, and facility expansions in 2020 have increased the dental suite to four dental chairs. Penn Dental Medicine faculty and students provide oral health education and diagnostic, preventive, restorative and surgical dental care, and provide expedited referral for specialty dental care at Penn Dental Medicine’s clinical center at 240 South 40^th Street. Penn Dental Medicine works in a collaborative manner with the interdisciplinary health care staff to ensure that oral health is an integral service along with comprehensive medical and behavioral health care at Sayre Health Center.

Penn Dental Medicine has allied with Spectrum Health Services to provide dental care at Spectrum’s medical/dental care facility at 5201 Haverford Avenue in West Philadelphia. This partnership ensures that oral health care services are provided as an integral part of health care for patients of all ages, taking into account the complexity of medical and social/economic factors for patients at the federally qualified health center. Penn Dental Medicine faculty and students provide oral health education and diagnostic, preventive, restorative and surgical dental care at the eight chair Spectrum dental facility and provide expedited referral for specialty dental care at Penn Dental Medicine’s clinical center at 240 South 40^th Street.

Penn Dental Medicine brings healthy smiles to children throughout the Philadelphia community through PennSmiles, an oral health outreach and clinical care program that travels to 24 area schools, Head Start programs and other neighborhood sites. Dental students and faculty provide oral health education and diagnostic, preventive and restorative dental care on the two chair mobile dental vehicle, Penn Smiles, that is fully equipped for on-site care, featuring two dental chairs, panorex dental radiography unit and all necessary equipment for comprehensive dental care.