Welcome to Dental Public Health

The vision of the OHSU’s Division of Dental Public Health is to:

• Provide a contemporary and high-quality dental public health education to pre-doctoral students;
• Build collaborative relationships with the community—including oral health and public health teams—for research and development;
• Provide opportunities within the School of Dentistry and broader OHSU to become leaders within dental public health;
• Pursue opportunities to address oral health and disparities in practice; and
• Explore models of dental care integration and delivery.

If you have questions and would like to contact our office, you can reach us at:

• (503) 494-5850
• OHSUDentalRotations@ohsu.edu

Our mission is to promote critical analysis of social, behavioral and policy-influenced factors that affect oral health outcomes in both individual patients and the entire population. These goals are achieved through a comprehensive didactic and experiential learning curriculum that begins in year one of the pre-doctoral program and culminates with the dental student’s fourth-year (DS4) community clinical rotations.

Sustainable public prevention programs and dental health services require a professional workforce committed to patient-centered care, evidence-based approaches and inter-professional dialogue to achieve the best possible oral health outcomes. The OHSU Division of Dental Public Health seeks to foster these characteristics at every stage of the pre-doctoral student’s educational process.

Teaching

At OHSU School of Dentistry Dental Public Health division, we teach didactically throughout the four-year DMD program, and in the students’ third and fourth years, they are immersed in hands-on educational experiences within the on-premises dental school clinics and in the community while on external rotations. 

Community Rotations Program

The Division of Dental Public Health is a resource to the state of Oregon. By nurturing the characteristics of competence and expertise in the graduating professional, we fulfill the core mission of public health dentistry while creating vital pipelines between our institution and the entire Oregon community. Students engage in these Oregon communities by completing an eight-week experiential learning rotation at an external site and a one-week rotation at OHSU’s Russell Street Dental Clinic.

Students are also immersed in specialty and interprofessional education opportunities with rotations through Multnomah County dental clinics to experience Baby Day rotations, in addition to a rotation through Clark College Advanced Hygiene Program.

Research

Throughout the Division of Dental Public Health at OHSU School of Dentistry, research is:

• The Oregon ECHO (Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes) Network
• Oral Cancer Research with the Knight Cancer Institute
• Collaborative research with the University of Washington School of Dentistry 
• HIV research initiatives with OHSU’s Russell Street Clinic
• Student research

Service Learning/Volunteer

C.O.A.S.T

Community Outreach Advocacy Service Training (C.O.A.S.T) is a student lead service group that gives dental students and opportunity to work in the community on a volunteer basis. Some of our current service learning opportunities include:

• Knight Cancer Screening Mobile Van
• Medical Teams International Mobile Dental Van
• Give Kids a Smile
• Health equity fairs

Our dental students continue to look for ways to support the communities around Oregon. If you have an upcoming fair or event that you would like OHSU Dental students to attend, please reach out to coastdental@ohsu.edu and the C.O.A.S.T team will respond as quickly as possible. We encourage a 60-day lead time prior to your event, to review your request and work through the approval and planning processes for our students. Thank you!

Bridges Collaborative Care Clinic

To find out more about Bridges or to volunteer as a community member or provider, please visit the Bridges website for additional details.

To donate to Bridges to help with supplies and other resources needed, please click the link below and it will direct you to our Bridges foundation page to process your gift.

OHSU Russell Street Dental Clinic

Russell Street Dental Clinic is a Community Dentistry Clinic which resides in a federally designated underserved area. In August 1975, Dr. David Rosenstein was awarded the Russell Street facility and a federal grant to serve low-income patients. Dr. Rosenstein grew up in a Boston housing project and both of his parents were people with disabilities. It was important to him to create a facility to serve poor and disenfranchised populations and to accommodate those with disabilities. During the AIDS epidemic, Dr. Rosenstein lead the way in offering dental care for these patients. This was a time when many dentists were afraid to treat this patient pool. David opened his schedule and saw exclusively HIV patients. His trademark was that he was the talkative, gregarious dentist who could make an anxious patient laugh. Although Dr. Rosenstein is now retired, his legacy continues at the clinic through the current Director, Dr. Michele Pindyck.