Local Community Outreach

A major component of the NYU College of Dentistry mission is extensive community outreach. Faculty from many departments lead NYU dental students in a wide range of patient care initiatives, traveling throughout the five boroughs of New York City to provide care to underserved populations.

The College's mobile dental care van, Smiling Faces, Going Places, is a unique program that brings comprehensive dental care to underserved children in New York City at public schools and Head Start facilities.

More than 100 community outreaches are conducted each year. To date, more than 30,000 New Yorkers have been screened for dental disease and tens of thousands of toothbrushes and care vouchers have been distributed.

Outreach throughout NYC

Integrated throughout the educational curriculum are inter-departmental and inter-academic program community outreach initiatives that serve the multicultural population of New York City. Some of the long-standing NYU Dentistry health education and treatment initiatives provided to historically underserved populations include:

Treatment of foster care youth at Forestdale and Little Flower Children and Family Services via our mobile Dental Van program
Yearlong rotations delivering comprehensive care at federally qualifying health centers (FQHCs) such as Metro Community Health in both Brooklyn and the Bronx
Rotations delivering care at community hospitals such as Gouverneur Health Center and the Bellevue Hospital OB/GYN clinic

In addition, the community outreach team within the Department of General Dentistry and Comprehensive Care places special emphasis on meeting the dental needs of adult and older New Yorkers by bringing care to people at community-based facilities, including food pantries, homeless shelters, centers for abused women, foreign missions, senior centers and foster care agencies via oral cancer screening events. These events provide access, education, oral health care products and vouchers for free examinations, cleanings and radiographs at the patient treatment centers within NYU College of Dentistry.