College of Dental Medicine Offers Free Training Program

Fifteen students are ready to snap on fresh latex gloves as new dental assistants. Last week, the College of Dental Medicine at Columbia held a graduation for students in its nine-year-old Dental Assisting Training Program, a free program that trains minorities traditionally underrepresented in the dental field to become dental assistants in their communities.

The program arose as the dental school first began expanding its services to surrounding city neighborhoods through offsite practices, school-based clinics, and mobile vehicles. Research at the Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery has documented a significant incidence of oral disease among residents of the economically disadvantaged, minority communities of Washington Heights, Inwood and Central Harlem.

The program aims to increase the number of well-trained auxiliary personnel, such as dental assistants, in order to decrease per-patient costs, improve access to dental services, and attract dentists to these communities.

"We realized there was a shortage of dental assistants statewide in New York," said Dennis Mitchell, associate dean for diversity and multicultural affairs at the College of Dental Medicine and the director of the program. "We initially only took in students of the communities we were working in, which was ideal for us because those are the patients' base where we are practicing."

Increased funding for the program, which is run jointly with the Harlem Hospital Dental Service, has since allowed it to take in students statewide, but Mitchell noted that the program focuses on northern Manhattan.

Although there is no method for guaranteeing that participants will practice in low-income areas, Mitchell said that most graduates do end up practicing in the neighborhoods where they grew up or live, because that is often where the jobs are available.

The responsibilities of a dental assistant include taking and developing X-rays, making impressions of a patient's teeth, assisting during dental procedures, and conducting office management. Students in the program take a series of courses followed by rotations through various hospital and community clinics to practice dental procedures.

To qualify, applicants must have high school diplomas or equivalency degrees at the time of entry. Since the program's inception, 162 students have successfully completed it. Many students move up to the next level of the dental career ladder and attend dental hygiene school at New York University or Hostos Community College. A few are taking preparatory classes to apply to dental school.