The Texas A&M College of Dentistry has received a five-year, $3.3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) to provide dental services to special-needs patients who age out of pediatric dental care at age 12 or 13.
These patients often have difficulty maintaining their oral healthcare because many procedures, including routine cleaning, require sedation. Few places offer training for special-needs dentistry, but this grant could be one that other dental schools emulate, according to the college.
Fellows will be trained within the college's pediatric dentistry residency program, and dental students will be taught earlier and more in-depth about how to treat these patients. In addition, a Compromised Care and Hospital Dentistry Fellowship was added as part of the grant, making it the first program in the state of Texas to be a special needs-focused postdoctoral program, according to Dr. Dan Burch, who is spearheading the grant.
As the program continues to develop, dental students will attend to patients at Scottish Rite children's hospital to receive hands-on training, Burch said.
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