The School of Dental Medicine Department of Pediatric Dentistry is the regions expert on children’s oral health. We share and support the School’s mission to educate patients, parents and guardians, and related health care professionals; promote research; and practice and promote evidence-based academic and clinical guidelines.
Community outreach events bring together faculty, staff, alumni and students to provide valuable dental care to the children of our region. Community outreach events, such as Give Kids a Smile Days (GKAS), bring together faculty, staff, alumni, students and the people who live and work in our community.
Give Kids a Smile Days
The Give Kids a Smile days are held in February and March of each year. These events are sponsored by the Department of Pediatric Dentistry, the Student Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatric Dentistry, and the American Student Dental Association (ASDA), and staffed by volunteers from the school. This very successful, annual event provides fluoride treatments, cleanings, radiographs, restorations, extractions, and sealants to more than 125 uninsured children. With the help of dental hygiene students from the School of Dental Medicine, the volunteers provide oral health education for children in a series of seven stations. Children learn about how teeth are used and what a dentist does. The children then are guided through stations to learn about plaque, radiographs, tooth loss, brushing, nutrition and fluoride. The children receive a gift at the end of each station for participation in the program.
Since GKAS’s inception eleven years ago, more than $120,000 of free dental care has been donated to the pediatric dental patients from across western Pennsylvania.
PNC Park United Concordia Dental and Vision Screenings
Held each summer in conjunction with the Pittsburgh Pirates, Tickets for Kids, United Concordia Dental, and Visionworks, these events provide free dental and vision screenings to all of the kids at the event. Along with the free screenings, the kids have an opportunity to meet the Pirate Parrot, receive a personal tour of PNC Park, have lunch in the Pirate's Press Room, and received free tickets to a future Pirate baseball game. About 140 kids have received screenings at each past event.