UConn Health

March 7, 2024 | Courtney Chandler - UConn Health

Dental Students Volunteer in the Community

UConn dental student volunteers provide screenings, education in several communities across the state

Dr. Sarita Arteaga and dental students volunteer at the Remote Area Medical two-day free clinic in Willimantic, Connecticut.

Students provide free dental care at the RAM clinic.

Over the last few weeks, several Connecticut communities got visits from UConn dental students offering free oral care and hygiene education.

Dental students volunteered at the Remote Area Medical (RAM) free two-day clinic in Willimantic, Connecticut. Coordinated by the Medical Club at UConn Storrs, the students helped provide medical, vision, and dental care to over 300 people, with services valued at over $185,000.

33 dental students, along with five faculty members volunteered at the free clinic.

“Through this pop-up clinic in Willimantic, the students from the School of Dental Medicine learn outside of the clinic walls by providing quality dental care through service,” said Dr. Sarita Arteaga, associate dean for students at the School of Dental Medicine. “Our goal is include teaching through outreach and leave a lasting impression for students to continue when they become professionals.  This event allowed our students to do this and it became evident how much they supported one another through this learning.”

RAM provides  free, quality health care services to underserved and uninsured individuals through pop-up clinics around the country.

For Children’s Dental Health Month in February, students from the Student National Dental Association/ Hispanic Student Dental Association (SNDA/HSDA) visited a Head Start classroom in Meriden, Connecticut. The students applied fluoride varnish to 120 preschool aged children. In addition to applying varnish, the students provided basic oral hygiene education to the children.

School of Dental Medicine students volunteer at a Headstart classroom in Meriden, Connecticut.

At the Special Olympics Connecticut Annual Winter Games, 18 student volunteers from the School of Dental Medicine screened 47 special olympic athletes at the cross-country skiing and snowshoeing event in Windsor, Connecticut. For the past two decades, UConn dental students have volunteered their time to provide intraoral and extraoral dental examinations, personal oral hygiene instruction, sport mouth guards, preventive fluoride varnish treatments, and dental care referral services at Special Olympics Connecticut events.

School of Dental Medicine students participate in the Special Olympics Connecticut Winter Games.