Community-Based Dental Education at The Ohio State University: The OHIO Project.

In the late 1990s, Ohio's citizens expre sed to the tate leader hip that acce s to dental care wa their greatest unmet health need. State-sponsored urveys continued to report that certain populations-the poor, disabled and minoritie xperience higher-than-average rates of dental disease and cannot access care. The Ohio State University allege ofDenti try sought to respond to this need by securing a $1.5 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2002 and began an experiment in engagement with community partners unprecedented in its hi tory. As the state's flagship dental institution, the college committed to a fundamental change in it clinical education of students and began a proces of making dental education relevant to our citizen , expo ing students to populations they were being trained to help, and bolstering the fragile statewide network of safety-net clinics with providers. This case history offers an operational overview, including some challenges and ucce es, of one school's journey in community-based dental education [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]