ECU dental school receives $3.1 million grant to improve special needs care
Members of the grant project team from the School of Dental Medicine and College of Allied Health Sciences meet via teleconference, led by principal investigator Dr. Michael Webb, right. (Photo by Jon Jones)
The East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine has received a $3.1 million grant to enhance resident training in the care of patients with special needs in eastern North Carolina and across the state.
The award from the Health Resources and Services Administration, one of the largest in the dental school’s history, will focus on improving dental care for pediatric and elderly patients as well as those with mobility issues and other complex health problems and those with mental, emotional and behavioral challenges.
“This grant highlights our mission and strong community partnerships,” said Dr. Greg Chadwick, dean of the School of Dental Medicine. “It positions our residents and future dentists to work in rural communities and learn to engage and respond to patients’ complex health challenges.”
The five-year project, titled “ECU Leadership Training in Special Needs Population Oral Health Care,” will address three specific goals—assessing and treating the needs of vulnerable populations, expanding pediatric dentistry training to a rural location and developing tools and training for population health management.
The project will include academic input in the areas of pediatrics, nursing, pediatric dentistry, general dentistry and dental public health. Pediatric dentistry training will be expanded to a rural site in Hertford County. Residents from the existing Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) program will be offered a second year of training that emphasizes oral health care delivery for vulnerable populations.
“This project is intended to take dentists who have basic knowledge and skills in treating special populations and expand on these so that they are able to be leaders in the care of these patients,” said Dr. Michael Webb, principal investigator and chair of the School of Dental Medicine’s Department of Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics.
According to the American Dental Education Association’s 2018 national Survey of Graduating Seniors, students expressed less confidence in their skills related to providing care for patients with physical, mental and developmental disabilities.
It can also be difficult for patients with special health needs to get access to dental care because of multiple factors, with little opportunity for prevention or early intervention. As a result, dental disease is more advanced and dental treatment needs are more complex.
“Rural communities in North Carolina have a need for dentists, especially pediatric dentists,” Webb said, “who are part of a medical-dental health-care team that can address social determinants of health. Underserved populations including patients with special needs and those in rural communities have multiple barriers to care that need to be addressed.”
The project will be based at Ross Hall with some components at the school’s community service learning center in Ahoskie and other sites around the state. The Eastern Area Health Education Center and the Department of Dental Hygiene at Catawba Valley Community College in Hickory, N.C., will also participate in the project.
Also leading the project is Dr. Mark Moss, co-project director and associate professor in the dental school’s Department of Foundational Sciences.
“If you spend a little time here things start to make sense,” Moss said. “There are a lot of people in North Carolina who want to make their communities better places to live. There are a lot of young dentists who want to be part of a better future. We feel like we have the perfect opportunity to make ECU a pillar in this endeavor.”
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