Predental and dental students serve the community and learn about preventive dentistry.

Dear Dr. Alvares: Many low-income families face the problem of not being able to support the medical and dental needs of their children. Resources such as health fairs and school visits are often the only means by which parents are able to provide medical and dental care for their kids. The UCLA School of Dentistry joined forces with a UCLA undergraduate club, the Predental Student Outreach Program, to provide dental services for low-income families while also educating predental and dental students alike. Dental student Jennifer Crowe and predental student Leila Najafi created and sold a predental handbook entitled “Everything You Need to Know as a UCLA Predental Student.” All profits from this manual and various other undergraduate fundraising activities were used to sponsor a dental health fair at Reseda Elementary School in Los Angeles on May 7, 2005. This event served to help children of an underprivileged community in receiving free dental screenings and sealant placement. Dental students provided free dental screenings and sealants to more than thirty families. Predental students learned about preventive dentistry by creating educational workshops about nutrition and oral hygiene for children and their parents. Providing predental students with this opportunity to take on such a huge role in a health fair has the ability to empower students in realizing their role as leaders of the next generation of dentists. Specifically, predental students set up booths on oral hygiene, nutrition, and caries etiology and even put on a puppet show encouraging kids to eat healthy foods and brush their teeth. The structure of the event was organized to ensure proper supervision during all stages of dental treatment. Faculty and residents were on hand and oversaw the screenings and sealants completed by ten dental students. This event was organized and coordinated through ASDA members Mehrnoosh Dianati (treasurer of the UCLA ASDA chapter), Jennifer Crowe (UCLA ASDA predental committee chair), and Leila Najafi (founder and president of the Predental Student Outreach Program). One of the goals was to connect predental students to the field of dentistry by taking an active role in the health fair, where they observed dental students while screening patients but also ran their own oral hygiene workshops. The event was a success, and a whole crosssection of faculty members, residents, dental students, and predental students gained a sense of accomplishment. Because of the great turnout, the Predental Student Outreach Program will continue to work with the UCLA ASDA chapter and dental students to organize more health fairs in the near future. It is so important to build the connection between predental students and dental schools. Perhaps this idea can be a good model for other dental schools and predental organizations.