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Identifying and Responding to Competing Needs: A Case Study of a Dental School‐Operated Community Dental Clinic
Author(s) -
Christie Diana,
Maida Carl A.,
Freed James R.,
Marcus Marvin
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
journal of dental education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.53
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1930-7837
pISSN - 0022-0337
DOI - 10.1002/j.0022-0337.2003.67.11.tb03716.x
Subject(s) - medicine , dental education , family medicine , medical education , psychology , dentistry
Dental schools face challenges and competing needs when they seek to initiate or expand their community dental programs. This article uses a dental school community clinic as a case study to frame the tensions between competing needs of educational requirements, access to dental care, financial viability, and service to the community that clinics must learn to manage if they are to be successful. The identification of competing needs provides community‐oriented dental school clinics the ability to examine factors that come into play as communities and their environments change. The outcome of this assessment process is strategies that can facilitate the provision of a higher level of services more efficiently, while at the same time taking into account future limitations in availability of resources. The concluding section of this article presents a model for a community‐based dental clinic that is directed more toward patient care, involves dentists/specialists as primary providers, allows postdoctoral residents to take on more responsibility, and allows dental students to provide patient care on a more regular and longitudinal basis.