17 June 2021

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Penn Medicine to open Center for Integrative Global Oral Health

Katherine E. Pfaff

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The University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Dental Medicine will open a center dedicated to creating equitable oral healthcare. The Center for Integrative Global Oral Health is intended to bring together oral care professionals, educators, and government to increase access and equity of care around the world.

"Dentists have always played an essential role in ensuring not just oral health, but overall health," says Dr. Mark S. Wolff, Penn Dental Medicine's Morton Amsterdam Dean. "The new Center will challenge us to move beyond our traditional role of operating in relative isolation from other healthcare providers to develop a new, integrated approach that promises to make a difference far beyond our campus." 

The goal of the center is to examine how education and public health groups can influence policy to create change and reduce dental disease globally. Its mission centers around the importance of oral health to overall health as well as the dentist’s role in patient care and community. The center will serve as location for innovators to determine interventions and ways to improve outcomes as well as increase accessibility. Another important aspect of the center is the creation of a MS in Oral Public Health, and curricula for epidemiology and oral disease prevention for the DMD and postgraduate programs. 

The oral health center will embark on a multi-year fundraising campaign. The center was granted a $5 million gift to create the endowed Fields-Rayant professorship. 

Source: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/penn-dental-medicine-establishes-center-for-integrative-global-oral-health-301304816.html