UB dental school provides free care to adolescents at West Side’s Belle Center

The UB School of Dental Medicine provided free preventative dental care to West Side adolescents and their families on March 29 during UB Dental Day at The Belle Center on Buffalo’s West Side.

Families who attended the event received fluoride treatments, oral screenings, oral hygiene kits and referrals for ongoing care from dental school faculty and students. While UB Dental Day was geared toward adolescents between 12 and 17 years of age, their parents and younger siblings were also able to take part.  

“The purpose of this event was to provide our West Side neighbors with the tools and knowledge to improve their oral health,” says Rubelisa Oliveira, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Periodontics and Endodontics, who helped organize the event. “Through surveys that we asked them to complete, we also wanted to get a sense of the current health status of adolescents who reside on the West Side.”

More than 20 volunteers from diverse fields including dental, public health, biomedical sciences, nutrition, pharmacy and biological sciences came together to support the event.

It dovetailed with Oliveira’s research project on identifying barriers for dental care access among disadvantaged adolescents, which she began as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Kentucky before joining UB’s faculty in 2022.

Founded in 1976, The Belle Center provides comprehensive services to West Side residents, including childcare and afterschool care, recreational programing, workplace readiness, and English language learning (ELL) classes.

Oliveira collaborated with Lucy Candelario, Belle Center executive director, to plan the event.

“When we started, the priority was fluoride treatment as the water fluoridation program was discontinued in Buffalo in 2015,” she says. “Although fluoride has now been reinstated in the city’s water supply, kids who are teenagers now did not have access to fluoridated water during their development years. And we know that children in low-income households suffer the most without regular fluoride treatments.”

The idea for UB Dental Day broadened into overall preventative care, along with oral health education such as proper brushing and flossing techniques and the importance of regular visits to the dentist.

Oliveira and her team received a $5,000 grant from the UB Civic Engagement Research Fund to host the event, along with funding from Henry Schein Dental. In addition, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation provided financial support with her main research project.

Volunteers from the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences and the School of Public Health and Health Professions also were on hand to provide free blood pressure and glucose screenings and assist parents with finding medical care and holistic health support.

“As a motivation for the community to try to engage more, they need to see that the dental school and others at UB are trying to meet some of their health care needs and engage with them,” Oliveira says. “We hope to have more events in community centers, such as The Belle Center, including one next semester. That’s the thing about establishing community partners — you have to be consistent.”

Through her research in Kentucky and Buffalo, Oliveira has observed that low-income families continue to experience the highest prevalence of untreated tooth decay, coupled with limited access to dental care.

Among adolescents, the prevalence of untreated tooth decay is twice as high compared to younger children, and they also have the highest rates of “no-shows” at dental appointments. Most go a year or more without seeing a dental provider. This is primarily tied to lack of transportation and financial hurdles — and results in decayed teeth.

In addition, some surveyed adolescents have never received dental care and showed high levels of anxiety and fear toward dental appointments.

“We’ve also learned that parents and other caregivers who use Medicaid for their family’s medical appointments often don’t realize that Medicaid covers preventive dental visits, too,” she adds. “Holding an event such as the one at The Belle Center is a way to connect with adolescents in most need, to show them we care about them, and convey that if they care for their teeth now, they will have far fewer problems down the road.”

Overall, Oliveira says the event was a huge success.

“We had an incredible opportunity to engage both students and community members, bringing oral health to the forefront as a priority,” she says. “It was inspiring to see the positive impact we made together, and we look forward to continuing these connections and supporting those who need it most.”