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Closing the Dental Divide
Community-centered scholarships empower students and graduates to help address oral health disparities in areas of greatest need
Photo by Roger MastroianniDental student Makayla Dillon received a scholarship that defrays tuition costs and commits her to a year of service after graduation in a community short on dental professionals.
More than 58 million people in the United States live in communities where dental practitioners are so scarce there's only one practicing dentist for every 4,000-plus residents.
Makayla Dillon wants to help do something about that. Dillon—whose family sometimes struggled to maintain dental coverage but still made dental visits a priority—is among a group of students and alumni at the Case Western Reserve University School of Dental Medicine seeking to reduce such coverage gaps.
"I have been there," said the third-year student. "We experienced it personally."
Once she graduates, Dillon will work in an underserved area. In 2022, she received a scholarship that defrays tuition costs and commits her to a year of service in one of the nation's 6,800-plus dental Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) identified by the federal government. These are regions where the population-to-practitioner ratio is either at least 5,000 to 1 or 4,000 to 1 if the area has unusually high dental needs.
Alumni working in HPSAs are "making a meaningful difference by improving outcomes for many vulnerable patients," said Kristin Williams, DDS (DEN '89; GRS '05, public health), the school's associate dean for admissions and student affairs.
Dillon's scholarship is part of a $1.2 million gift to the dental school from the philanthropic arm of Molina Healthcare, which provides insurance benefits to participants in Medicaid, Medicare and other government-sponsored programs. The gift is for initiatives to increase dental-workforce diversity and address practitioner shortages.
The scholarships also allow recipients—many of them from underprivileged backgrounds—to focus on studies and not make career choices based on their educational debt.
The Delta Dental Foundation also has provided funding tied to HPSAs, specifically a $25,000 Community Commitment Award given annually to a student from the CWRU dental school and four other schools within its geographic focus area.
"We believe [HPSAs] are areas of opportunity, where people and neighborhoods deserve care and dignity and providers who are going to be there for them," said Jen Anderson, a foundation spokesperson.
After their year ends, many scholarship recipients continue to practice in an HPSA or a community health clinic, or provide discounted or free treatments to underinsured patients, Anderson said.
Last year, Eduardo Santos, DMD (DEN '23), was the CWRU student chosen for the Delta Dental award.
He's now in a two-year term practicing dentistry at Cincy Smiles—a federally qualified health clinic that treats the underserved in the western Cincinnati area and has a mobile unit that goes to schools, juvenile detention centers and social service agencies.
"As immigrants, my family was not so fortunate at times, so I feel a calling to serve in areas of need," Santos said.
— DANIEL ROBISON
