A collaboration among faculty, residents, students, and volunteers, UCSF’s Community Dental Clinic has been working to improve the health of San Francisco’s uninsured population for the past decade.

The philosophy of the Community Dental Clinic is to motivate patients to seek healthcare and to prevent dental disease through education and preventive dentistry. CDC is guided by three mutually supportive sets of aspirations:

• For the patients
  To provide oral health education and treatment. To achieve a positive impact on the lives of our patients.

• For the students
  To create a setting in which students can learn, teach, and practice clinical skills while cultivating sensitivity and comfort in interactions with the underserved population.

• For the Community
  To use the Dental Clinic as a forum for education and health care service. To promote advocacy for the needs of the homeless population.

Ultimately, we hope this experience will broaden our vision and make us more able and compassionate health care providers for whichever population we choose to serve.