Meet the 2024 Domestic Access to Care Grant Awardees

The Foundation for Endodontics' and Specialized Dental Partners' Domestic Access to Care Program provides vital funding to ensure our nation’s most vulnerable populations can access tooth-saving endodontic treatment in a variety of clinical settings. The 2024 grant recipients will work to serve hundreds of low-income, uninsured, and unhoused individuals who have no other treatment options. Not only does this program meet the critical needs of these patients, but it increases awareness of endodontics within communities where extractions are often the only option.

Pennsylvania
North Philadelphia is an extremely vulnerable area regarding poverty and access to proper dental care. Pennsylvania Medicaid does not cover endodontic treatment for anyone over the age of 21. As a result, individuals who need endodontic services and cannot afford to pay, have no options available to save their teeth and eliminate any pain and swelling that may be associated with their dental disease.

Project Home's Stephen Klein Wellness Center offers multiple rehabilitative medicine specialties, including dental and physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy. The second-year endodontic residents from Einstein Medical Center care for the patients of Project Home under direct faculty supervision. The project will be overseen by Dr. Louis Rossman.

Illinois
Patients are referred to the Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine from all over the region. As a dental school residency program, patients are referred to SIU from all over southern Illinois. The school serves as one of the only Medicaid providers in the region, and no patient is turned away. The graduate endodontic clinic treats approximately 300 cases per resident during their 24-month residency. Many patients are referred by their dental home or a federally qualified health center (FQHC).  All treatment will be performed on campus, home to a recently completed state-of-the-art Advanced Care Clinic where the endodontic residents practice along with the AEGD Program and the Implant Fellowship Program. Dr. Leigh Speer continues to lead this program.

Texas
The faculty at UTHSCSA have established a partnership with the San Antonio Christian Dental Clinic (SACDC) for an annual day of charitable endodontic service. SACDC provides affordable, accessible dental care to underserved and homeless adults living at or below 150% of the federal poverty line, with >50% of the patient cohort served identifying as unhoused.

The model of care is based on volunteer dentists and hygienists serving alongside an employed support team. UTHSCSA is the principal partner in patient care. Advanced general dentistry residents, dental students, and hygiene students participate in a rotation program that is mutually beneficial. In 2023, the graduate endodontics department got involved with the program. This day of outreach is the only service-learning opportunity available to the endo residents. This grant would allow the program to incorporate endodontics. Dr. Nikita Ruparel leads this program.

California
The Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry at the University of Southern California (USC) has cooperated with the Union Rescue Mission (URM) Dental Clinic for over 20 years, providing free dental care to Los Angeles’ homeless population in the Skid Row district. The clinic currently serves 1,380 patients annually, who are triaged by USC dental students under the supervision of faculty general dentists.

In 2022, USC began staffing the clinic with an endodontist. That program has seen considerable success in terms of the number of endodontic procedures provided and the quality of patient care. This grant, will allow the introduction of a second USC endodontist into the URM clinic, increasing the number of vulnerable patients treated. Restorative treatment is provided by USC dental students under faculty supervision. Dr. Yaara Berdan is overseeing the project.

North Carolina
Wake Smiles is a community dental clinic serving uninsured adults in Wake County, NC. Wake Smiles has performed 133 root canals with more than 20 endodontists and endo residents volunteering more than 340 hours over the past three years. The Wake Smiles endo program has seen considerable expansion since it first received Foundation support in 2021. Other AAE members have begun volunteering and donating equipment, and the University of North Carolina Adams School of Dentistry endodontic residents now provide care in the community clinic. Dr. Robert Sopko is leading this program.

These grants represent a $42,000+ investment in Domestic Access to Care initiatives. Congratulations to this year’s awardees! Together, they will serve hundreds of deserving patients in the coming year. Check back often for updates as these projects progress.