Evaluation of a community oral health project serving the homeless in Los Angeles

Objective: To evaluate a community health project of the USC School of Dentistry serving the homeless in Los Angeles, CA, and to assess the oral health condition of its population.

Methods: All the clinical charts of 1,088 patients seen during 2006 in the USC dental clinic located in the Union Rescue Mission in downtown Los Angeles, CA have been evaluated.

Results: Only 29% of the patients were females; 54% were between 25 and 49 years, 15% less than 18 years old, and less than 2% over 65 years. The patients -on average- visited the clinic 5.4 times, and had 2.8 procedures per visit. Compared to males, females had significantly lower average of visits but higher average of procedures per visit (3.9 vs. 6.1 and 3.0 vs. 2.7 respectively, both p<.0001). The diagnosis and treatment procedures composed 27% and 73% of all provided procedures respectively. The most frequent interventional (non-medicament) types of procedures were restorative (25%), removable prosthodontic (23%), preventive (21%), periodontal (13%), surgical (13%), and endodontic (5%). Among males, the most frequent procedures were restorative (25%); among females it was preventive (28%). Individually, simple extraction and scaling/root planning (per quadrant) were the second and third most frequent procedures after oral health instructions.

Conclusions: Community health projects are important in assessing and improving the oral health of the underserved homeless population. Homeless persons are in great need of restorative, surgical, and periodontal dental procedures.