Community-based dental education at the Ohio State University: the OHIO Project

In the late 1990s, Ohio's citizens expressed to the state leadership that access to dental care was their greatest unmet health need. State-sponsored surveys continued to report that certain populations-the poor, disabled, and minorities-experience higher-than-average rates of dental disease and cannot access care. The Ohio State University College of Dentistry sought to respond to this need by securing a $1.5 million grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2002 and began an experiment in engagement with community partners unprecedented in its history. As the state's flagship dental institution, the college committed to a fundamental change in its clinical education of students and began a process of making dental education relevant to our citizens, exposing students to populations they were being trained to help, and bolstering the fragile statewide network of safety-net clinics with providers. This case history offers an operational overview, including some challenges and successes, of one school's journey in community-based dental education.