Reflections on the dental Pipeline program's efforts regarding community-based dental education

Although many changes are being made, many are still needed in educating future dental professionals about prevention programs, ethics, professionalism, communication, cultural competence, and access to care. It is not yet clear if producing more dentists will put these professionals into underserved areas where they are needed, with the skills they need. The achievements of the Pipeline, Profession, and Practice: Community-Based Dental Education program schools in increasing the amount of time students spend in community-based education and service-learning programs result from a widespread, national effort to meet this challenge. This article is a personal reflection and review of these programs, considering what has been learned and still needs to be learned about student educational impact and quality, faculty issues, program management, infrastructure and logistics, and financial impact, with suggestions for future study that can help dental schools design the most effective programs.