Expanding dental care access using social entrepreneurship

This paper reviews the theory and history of Social Entrepreneurship as it has been applied in nonprofit health care organizations and concludes its vastly underutilized methods offer great potential for increasing dental access in underserved, urban-blight, and ethnically diverse communities. It covers both the promise and pitfalls of establishing dental services in markets avoided by profit-oriented businesses. Clarifying distinctions between mission-focused enterprise and charitable organizations, the paper describes steps necessary for establishing sustainable nonprofits that deliver high quality care in economically depressed neighborhoods. The author draws on more than a decade of personal experience in developing innovative solutions to the glaring need for dental care in a low-income population long denied access. Discussion includes the optimization of financial backing; the engagement of a wary market; the importance of buy-in from board members and health professionals; the need to combine financial management with fiscal stewardship; and, the unique challenges of finding and retaining support staff with both requisite skills and cultural sensitivity. These methods are not often emphasized in dental schools nor in public health curricula which focus on traditional health administration courses. The paper suggests that given the current economic and political uncertainty throughout the health care industry, many students may be better served with an alternative that encourages them to seize the opportunity for advancing change through carefully deployed social entrepreneurship.