Domestic Access to Care Grant Recipients
Endodontists are making a difference in their communities across the nation by providing access to a high level of endodontic care. Check out the projects funded (some in part and some in full) by the Foundation for Endodontics’ & Specialized Dental Partners’ Domestic Access to Care Program since 2021.
2023 Projects
Project Location:
Nova Southeastern University, Davie, FL
Project’s Endodontic Lead:
Yehuda Benjamin
Project Summary:
In the face of the humanitarian crisis stemming from the Ukrainian conflict, the Department of Endodontics at Nova Southeastern University College of Dental Medicine, along with the Ukrainian Refugee Resettlement Project, is rendering endodontic care to the Ukrainian refugees resettled in the South Florida community. This grant provides the refugees necessary endodontic services, thereby alleviating their pain and discomfort, addressing or avoiding infection, and preventing the unnecessary loss of teeth that could otherwise be saved through endodontic treatment.
Project Location:
Smile Unto Him, Riverside, CA
Project’s Endodontic Lead:
Sue Suh
Project Summary:
Smile Unto Him is the only brick-and-mortar free dental clinic in Riverside County, CA, providing free dental treatment to low-income veterans and seniors (200% or less of federal poverty guidelines). Patients receive a comprehensive dental evaluation, treatment planning and treatment completion. The patients return for routine hygiene visits to maintain oral health and improved quality of life. Since 2019, the clinic has provided more than $1M in free dental care.
Project Location:
Lift as We Climb, NYC
Project’s Endodontic Lead:
Marcus Johnson
Project Summary:
The “Lift as we Climb” program provides endodontic specialty care, from access through restoration, to underserved populations in Brooklyn. This project hopes to increase access to specialty care and divert emergent visits to nonurgent or semi-urgent, less expensive, and more effective, oral health care and treatment. Patients who present in the hospital’s emergency room for dental pain are diverted in hopes of saving natural teeth and increasing oral health literacy.
Project Location:
San Antonio Christian Dental Clinic
Project’s Endodontic Lead:
Nikita Ruparel
Project Summary:
The faculty and residents at the University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio (UTHSCSA) Department of Endodontics 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 Bexar County adults living at or below 150% of the federal poverty line, with >50% of the patient cohort served identifying as unhoused. This grant allows the graduate endodontics department to participate in this much-needed service project.
Project Location:
Trident Save-a-Smile, Maryland
Project’s Endodontic Lead:
Ronald Taylor
Project Summary:
The Trident Save-a-Smile Foundation is a collaborative program provides free endodontic treatment to needy, pre-screened patients one day annually. Since its establishment in 2018, the team has provided 114 pro bono root canal procedures. All team members, including providers, dental assistants, sterilization technicians, patient coordinators, and administrators, have graciously donated their time and skills towards one Saturday each year, bolstering communities in Howard and Montgomery counties.
Project Location:
Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia
Project’s Endodontic Lead:
Frederic Barnet
Project Summary:
Patients who are referred to the I.B. Bender Division of Endodontics within the Albert Einstein Medical Center and need for endodontic treatment are treated by endodontic residents under the direct supervision of endodontic faculty. This program benefits both patients and clinicians in that people who would not ordinarily seek specialty care will be able to access it and residents who might not ordinarily assess and treat severe disease will have the opportunity to learn how to manage such cases.
Project Location:
Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville
Project’s Endodontic Lead:
Marvin Leigh Speer
Project Summary:
Patients are referred to the Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine from all over the region and no patient is turned away, regardless of their economic standing. All treatment is performed on campus, where the endodontic residents practice along with the AEGD Program and the Implant Fellowship Program. The grant assists with the cost of supplies associated with endodontic surgical procedures which are not covered by Medicaid, allowing the residents to provide, and patients to receive, additional needed treatment. Dr. Leigh Speer, director of post-graduate endodontics at SIU, will lead this new program.
Project Location:
Grace Center Texas, Dallas
Project’s Endodontic Lead:
Kayla Tavares Tio
Project Summary:
The Grace Center Texas provides free comprehensive dental care to patients at or below the federal poverty level who do not have or are not eligible to have any private or state funded dental insurance. Dr. Kayla Tavares Tio has been the sole endodontist volunteer since 2019. As The Grace Center Texas patient population grows, this grant will provide more endodontic instruments and supplies to continue serving these patients. Dr. Tavares Tio will lead this project.
2022 Projects
Project Location:
Union Mission Rescue, Los Angeles
Project’s Endodontic Lead:
Yaara Berdan
Project Summary:
The Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry at the University of Southern California (USC) has worked 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.
With help from a Foundation for Endodontics grant, Dr. Yaara Berdan led the URM Dental Clinic in performing more root canals onsite, ensuring more patients received the endodontic treatment they needed as part of comprehensive rehabilitative services.
Project Location:
University of Maryland, Baltimore
Project’s Endodontic Lead:
Ina Griffin
Project Summary:
The endodontic and pediatric residents at the University of Maryland School of Dentistry (UMSOD) collaborated to provide cross-disciplinary dental care to children of undocumented migrants. These children receive basic preventive and restorative oral healthcare through the school’s program for low-income and uninsured children, but pediatric endodontic care was not funded. The grant enabled these two departments to work together to save more young, permanent at-risk teeth. Further, Dr. Griffin oversaw the development of UMSOD’s pediatric-focused clinical and academic curriculum, resulting in graduates who are confident in their ability to treat children and adolescents.
2021 Projects
Project Location:
Philadelphia Fight Community Health Center
Project’s Endodontic Lead:
Tina Chou
Project Summary:
Philadelphia FIGHT, a Federally Qualified Heath Center (FQHC), serves people living with HIV, their partners and families, the formerly incarcerated, Hep C+ individuals and those recovering from substance abuse. “We’re now able to increase the standard of care, and the funds will allow us to extend number of patients we can serve,” explains Kari Hexem, DMD MPH, chief dental officer at FIGHT. “There’s a lot of demand. Every patient we see requires endo on at least one tooth.”
Project Location:
Mercy Clinics, Fort Worth, TX
Project’s Endodontic Lead:
Francisco Nieves
Project Summary:
Mercy Clinic provides medical and dental services to the uninsured and impoverished residents of inner-city Fort Worth, serving areas with among the lowest life expectancies in the state of Texas. All medical and dental providers are volunteers. The two-chair dental clinic offers oral health examinations, digital radiography (including panoramic), dental prophylaxis, restorative dentistry, endodontics, and oral surgery. There are 10 general dentists, two endodontists and a periodontist on the dental team roster, along with an on-site pharmacy.
Project Location:
Project HOME, Philadelphia
Project’s Endodontic Lead:
Frederic Barnett
Project Summary:
Project HOME is a nonprofit comprehensively focused on ending homelessness and alleviating poverty in North Philadelphia. More than 30 percent of residents live under the federal poverty line – twice the national average. Project HOME is staffed on a part-time basis by an endodontic resident and faculty member from Einstein’s I.B. Bender Division of Endodontics, Department of Dental Medicine.
Project Location:
Wake Smiles, Raleigh, NC
Project’s Endodontic Lead:
David Wong
Project Summary:
Wake Smiles, a community dental clinical founded 20 years ago in Raleigh, serves thousands of uninsured adults living 200% under the federal poverty guidelines in Wake County, NC. A high percentage of these patients live with uncontrolled systemic diseases. The clinic’s interdisciplinary approach incorporates patient education about the relationship between oral and systemic health, and ways to improve both.
Project Location:
The Grace Center Texas, Dallas County
Project’s Endodontic Lead:
Kayla Tavares Tio
Project Summary:
The Grace Center Texas provides free comprehensive dental care to patients at or below the federal poverty level who do not have or are not eligible to have any private or state funded dental insurance. Dr. Kayla Tavares Tio has been the sole endodontist volunteer since 2019. As The Grace Center Texas patient population grows, this grant provides more endodontic instruments and supplies to continue serving these patients.