Michael Reddy, DMD, DMScI recently spent a Wednesday night at our school’s Community Dental Clinic, which has been a safety net for marginalized communities in the Bay Area for more than 30 years. I love this student-run organization because it provides patients, who have limited or no means, with a dental home and access to care – all while providing an educational and leadership space.
It’s touching and impactful to watch the patients ecstatically get dental work done – some even hugging their providers after seeing their smiles transform. Receiving dental care improves oral health, overall health, and in many cases, a person’s self-esteem. This clinic encompasses what I love best about dentistry – the combination of research, patient care and education. It all comes together at this clinic. It’s a wonderful thing to see.
I’m so proud of our student leaders who run it. They’re making a big difference for society by making dental care accessible to all and delivering this much needed service.
Providing health services to Californians is what guides the UC Health system. The UC Health system is made up of six academic health campuses (UCSF, UC Davis, UC San Diego, UCI, UCLA, UCR). UC Health values taking care of our communities. Our clinics and hospitals play a major role in the health care safety net system for medically underserved communities.
Medi-Cal enrollees are UC Health’s second-largest group of patients by health plan coverage, representing 35%. UC also is the second-largest provider of Medi-Cal hospital services by most measures. For example, nearly half of all Medi-Cal solid organ transplants occur at a UC location. Medi-Cal is California’s Medicaid health care program that serves low-income individuals.
As part of the UC system’s public service mission, UC connects Medi-Cal enrollees to reliable access to primary care at Federally Qualified Health Centers. Also, specialty clinics across the system regularly provide care to Medi-Cal patients in areas like hematology, gastroenterology, obstetrics/gynecology, pediatrics, ophthalmology – and of course dentistry.
Across the nine clinics that UCSF Dentistry operates and staffs, approximately 45% of the patients we serve have Medi-Cal dental coverage. At our Community Health Partner clinics, where our learners treat patients across the state through externships, more than 70% of the patients use Medi-Cal dental coverage.
Outside the clinic, our learners and faculty volunteer their time in the community delivering dental screenings and other services. They also educate on proper oral health care.
The Hispanic Student Dental Association Chapter at UCSF recently performed their first dental screening community event since the beginning of the pandemic. The Gender and Sexual Diversity in Dentistry Alliance (GSDDA) also began providing community dental screenings again in April following a pause because of the pandemic. These events connect oral health care with patients in the community who need it.
Upon graduation, most of our alumni stay in California. They continue serving our communities, where they use the skills and compassion they developed at UCSF to treat patients.
UCSF, together with our sister campuses throughout the UC system, is doing a great job serving everybody in our communities. And I’m proud to be a part of it.
Michael S. Reddy, DMD, DMSc
Dean, UCSF School of Dentistry
Associate Vice Chancellor, Oral Health Affairs
