Dr. Jeri Bullock, Associate Dean for Clinical Operations, and Dr. Heidi Iongi, Director of Community Engagement and Clinical Integration received the prestigious Delta Dental Institute Oral Health Equity Research Award during the opening ceremonies of the annual meeting of the American Association for Dental, Oral and Craniofacial Research held last week.

This award provides $25,000 to study the effects of integrated care on adolescent oral health at the West High School Clinic. The West High School Clinic first opened in early 2024 with both primary care and behavioral health services. Almost immediately, providers noted how many of their patients also needed dental care and recruited Drs. Bullock and Iongi to add dental services. With the dental clinic now fully operational, the West High School Clinic reaches the highest level of integration (Level 6, full collaboration in a transformed/merged practice) and has many innovative features, such as convertible chairs that function for both medical and dental visits. The dental clinic expects to serve hundreds of adolescents per year, many of whom haven't had routine dental care in childhood. 

The goals of the research led by Drs. Iongi and Bullock are to describe the unique oral health needs of adolescents at West High School; to decipher co-occurring challenges, such as dental care-related fear and anxiety or co-existing medical conditions, that may affect care; and to document the impact of addressing adolescents' dental care needs in a school-based, integrated setting on their oral health after high school and into adulthood.