ANN ARBOR—University of Michigan dentistry students, working with community and professional organizations in Calhoun County, are helping to bring dental care to Medicaid recipients and low-income uninsured residents in Battle Creek.

Since September, teams of students have been traveling the 90 miles to Battle Creek twice a week to support dental services at the Family Health Center of Battle Creek.

“The U-M students extend our reach to the children and families who desperately need basic dental care,” said Dr. A.J. Jones, CEO of the Family Health Center. “It’s a very exciting way to provide practical experience and meet community needs.”

Access to dental services and oral health care is a critical need in the area; the county has more than 20,000 residents eligible for Medicaid, 18,000 eligible for Medicare, and 9,700 who are uninsured, according to a needs assessment by Third Sector Strategies. The Family Health Center commissioned the study and subsequently launched a local dental service to respond to huge unmet needs.

Members of the Southwestern District Dental Society are helping to supervise the dental students, who provide a full range of oral health services, according to Jed J. Jacobson, DDS, associate professor and assistant dean for community and outreach at the U-M School of Dentistry.

The dental students, all in their final year, are enrolled in a community practice course designed to allow them to work in settings with other health care professionals to bring total care to patients.

Other partners in the program are the Nursing Clinic of Battle Creek, Battle Creek Public Schools, Calhoun County Communities in Schools, Inc., and the Calhoun County Health Improvement Program.

Jacobson says the partners hope to expand the dental program to allow all 100 senior dental students to spend a full week, from September through March, at the clinic, located in Battle Creek. A long-term goal, notes Jacobson, is to purchase portable equipment that will allow the dental students to move into rural areas of the county, “but first we need to establish a base program, and this collaborative with local community organizations is allowing us to do that.”

The Family Health Center, says Jacobson, is an ideal location for students to gain a real understanding of the impact of oral health on patients’ total well-being, and to do so in a population that is underserved.

“Lack of dental services may mean decayed teeth, abscesses, infected jaw bones. These problems, in turn, can lead to severe pain, speech impairment, serious weight loss and wide-spread infections,” says Jacobson. Across Michigan, studies indicate that children lose more than two million hours of school time each year due to dental disease.

A 1991 Michigan Oral Data Study identified 22 percent of toddlers, age 2-5, suffering from “baby bottle tooth decay,” which is preventable through parent education, counseling and early intervention. The same study showed that 92 percent of tooth decay in children ages 6-9 could have been prevented with dental sealants at far less cost than restorative care requires. A 1993 study indicated that 79 percent of teens 13-19 had dental caries and 51 percent had untreated disease.

Although Battle Creek is a new outreach site, the community practice class places dental students in settings ranging from the Milan Federal Correctional Facility to Walter Reuther Psychiatric Hospital to various private dental practices. Since 1981, the University has staffed a Community Dental Center in Ann Arbor, a cooperative program supported by the City of Ann Arbor. Every summer, dental students serve migrant workers in northern Lower Michigan, and travel to Big Bay in the Upper Peninsula to staff a summer camp for children with physical disabilities.

The field experiences, according to William E. Kotowicz, DDS, dean of the U-M School of Dentistry, are designed to allow students to observe the relationship of dental problems to individuals and social groups, and to become familiar with some of the factors affecting the distribution of dental disease in a population.

“They permit our students to gain an understanding of the roles and functions of various community health agencies and organizations in dealing with the total health problems of the community,” says Kotowicz.

Exposing students to community health agencies allows them to become knowledgeable about their professional activities beyond private practice, and to interact with other health care providers, says the dean.

Funding for the U-M participation comes from the U-M dental school and a grant from the University to support community outreach and service.

For more information, contact Jacobson at (734) 763-3313. In Battle Creek, for either Don Bonfiglio, DDS, of the Southwest Dental Society, or A.J. Jones of the Family Health Center of Battle Creek; call (616) 965-8866.

University of Michigan