NYU awarded grant to improve seniors' oral health

May 19, 2010

The New York University (NYU) College of Dentistry has received a one-year grant from the United Hospital Fund to provide underserved older adults in New York City with better access to dental care. The project will involve dental, hygiene, and nursing students and faculty, who will develop and assess a collaborative oral healthcare referral model.

"Our project will fill large gaps in our knowledge about the oral health needs of community-dwelling older adults by screening over 300 adults over the age of 60 who either seek services from senior centers or live in naturally occurring retirement communities in Manhattan and Queens," said Donna Shelley, M.D., M.P.H., the grant's principal investigator. "Our ultimate goal is to create a seamless referral link between community settings serving older adults and dental healthcare settings in order to increase access to much needed dental care."

Dental, dental hygiene, and nursing students will screen residents at each partnering site. The dental and dental hygiene students will conduct oral health assessments, and the nursing students will take medical histories and interview the seniors to identify potential barriers to care, such as a lack of insurance and inadequate transportation to dental service delivery sites.

As part of the project, the dental school is collaborating with the New York State Dental Association to create a directory of dentists who will serve as a referral resource.

"The data we gather will enable us to estimate the prevalence of oral health problems in this population and the amount of uncompensated care needed to meet the seniors' basic oral health needs," Dr. Shelley said. "We expect to find large numbers of older adults without dental insurance because Medicare does not cover dental treatment."

This is only one of the many barriers that older adults face in trying to access dental care, she added. "We also intend to use the data to develop a referral model that could be replicated in the future on a larger scale citywide and to advocate for government funding to fill gaps in uncompensated care for seniors."