School of Dentistry

Dental Public Health

OHSS Community Dentistry Department

Welcome to Dental Public Health

The vision of the Division is to

  • Provide a contemporary and high-quality dental public health education to pre-doc students;
  • Build collaborative relationships with the community, including oral health and public health teams for research and development;
  • Provide opportunities within the School of Dentistry and broader OHSU to become leaders within dental public health;
  • Pursue opportunities to address oral health and disparities in practice; and
  • Explore models of dental care integration and delivery.

Contact us

Division of Dental Public Health

2730 S. Moody Avenue
Portland, OR 97201-5042

503-494-5850
OHSUDentalRotations@ohsu.edu
  

About

The mission of the Division of Dental Public Health is to promote critical analysis of social, behavioral, and policy-influenced factors that affect oral health outcomes in both individual patients and the entire population. These goals are achieved through a comprehensive didactic and experiential learning curriculum that begins in year one of the pre-doctoral program and culminates with the Dental Student’s 4th year (DS4) community clinical rotations. We strive to develop curricula that lays the foundation for the student's life-time professional development, commitment to service and community collaboration, and ensure awareness of the comprehensive and complex nature of health care for vulnerable populations.

Sustainable public prevention programs and dental health services require a professional workforce committed to patient-centered care, evidence-based approaches, and inter-professional dialogue to achieve the best possible oral health outcomes. The OHSU Division of Dental Public Health seeks to foster these characteristics at every stage of the pre-doctoral student's educational process.

The Division of Dental Public Health is a resource to the state of Oregon. By nurturing the characteristics described above in the graduating professional, we are fulfilling the core mission of public health dentistry while creating vital pipelines between our institution and the entire Oregon community.