Capacity of California's Oral Health Safety Net

In conjunction with the National Pipeline Program involving a consortium of 15 dental schools, the University of the Pacific School of Dentistry undertook a study of the capacity of California's safety net system. The general aims of the study were to answer several questions about the organization and capacity of California's safety net system to provide oral health services to underserved populations and to work with dental school to place dental students and residents in community sites for service/learning experiences.

Among the primary conclusions from this work are: 1) The oral health safety-net system in California is not a system. It is a loose association of clinics linked through a patchwork of organizations. 2) Clinics without dental facilities provide limited dental services and even those with dental facilities provide few dental services considering the availability of chairs and staff. There is a large discrepancy between the demand for services and the availability of services result in long wait times for appointments, averaging 28 days wait for a new patient examination. 3) There are many clinics that want to expand dental services and are interested in and capable of having dental student and resident rotations. Clinics that have rotations like them and feel that they provide a number of tangible and intangible benefits to the clinic in addition to providing needed workforce to meet the clinic's patient care mission. 4) There is a need for a planning and support network between clinics and schools.