Grants to states to support oral health workforce activities - oral health inequities and disparities are evident in the state of indiana, especially among the most vulnerable

Some of the specific population subgroups that have been identified as most critically lacking access in indiana are geriatric groups, amish pediatric communities, and individuals with disabilities. IT's been observed that residing in a dental professional shortage area (dpsa), has its limitations in accessing oral health services for the general population; with a disadvantaged group, the situation worsens even further. To address this, the project team housed at the indiana university school of dentistry in collaboration with indiana department of health will design a collaborative community intervention to improve future dental workforce competence and capacity, thereby improving access to oral health services, especially for identified vulnerable, rural underserved population of indiana (vuri). This program will also immediately increase capacity in the state, by adding dental students to the workforce. The project will involve curricular assessments to evaluate the current knowledge gaps in predoctoral dental student (DDS) curriculum with regards to treating the complex oral health needs of the specific population subgroups. Depending on the gaps found, didactic modules and new, specialized community based dental education (cbde) rotations with a strong interprofessional component, that will place students to provide care in hpsas, will be implemented to provide fourth year dental students with the knowledge, skills, and experience needed to properly address the complex needs of these patient communities.