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Columbia Unveils New Mobile Clinic for Community Dental Care
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY’s mobile dentistry program is back and ready to deliver health screenings and low-cost dental care to residents of Northern Manhattan and the Bronx.
On Nov. 12, officials and community leaders joined leaders from Columbia University at its Manhattanville campus in West Harlem to celebrate the debut of the new Mobile Dental Center, operated by Columbia’s College of Dental Medicine.
The new mobile center—a modern, movable clinic—will travel to Head Start centers, schools, senior centers and other partner sites in CDM’s Community DentCare Network. The clinic will primarily serve patients in Washington Heights, Harlem, Inwood and the South Bronx, many of whom have limited access to healthcare.
The mobile clinic features two dental chairs, X-ray equipment, a reception and health education area, and a wheelchair lift. It is designed to serve as an extension of the Center for Precision Dental Medicine, CDM’s stateof-the-art teaching clinic. It is expected to facilitate the conduct of exams, as well as referrals and treatment for people, especially children and senior adults, who need it most and who find it difficult to access standing clinics. The mobile clinic replaces and improves upon the school’s previous mobile clinic, now decommissioned.
CDM purchased the new vehicle with a grant from the Delta Dental Community Care Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Delta Dental of California.
A bright blue bus, emblazoned with photos of smiling children, the new Mobile Dental Center reflects CDM’s rejuvenated DentCare program, which runs the mobile clinic and other initiatives to improve access to oral health in the community. CDM faculty, hygienists and trainees have completed more than 150,000 patient care visits through the DentCare program since its inception in 1996. DentCare suspended most operations in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and moved to telehealth services for some of the hardest-to-reach populations, such as homebound patients in the Northern Manhattan area. This fall the program resumed its wider net services.
In addition to offering care in the mobile clinic, DentCare provides local seniors with health screenings, workshops and referrals through an initiative called ElderSmile. Several new programs to deliver cross-disciplinary healthcare to the young and the vulnerable elderly are in development by the DentCare team in collaboration with Columbia’s nursing and medical schools, New YorkPresbyterian’s Ambulatory Care Network and the faith-based organization ArchCare.
To integrate care effectively, CDM has added a new role to the DentCare team: the community dental health coordinator, a position established through a second grant from Delta Dental and in partnership with the New York State Dental Association. The coordinator facilitates connections among patients, providers, community health centers, and other social service agencies to better support patients with a range of health needs; directly performs certain oral health services; and works to strengthen DentCare’s relationships with an array of community partners.
