University of Florida gets 7 million dollar grant to provide dental care for children
The University of Florida has been awarded five grants, totalling seven million dollars, it has been announced.
The money has been given to the institution by the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S Department of Health and Human Resources and will be used to improve access to dental services for underprivileged children in the region and provide valuable resources for dental students.
Dr Teresa Dolan, dean of the university’s dental school, said the grants would provide valuable resources to improve the quality of student’s education, as well as increasing the number of students able to train at the facility.
Improving the quality of training and increasing the number of student dentists will make a huge difference to dental services in the future; more dentists will be available to treat patients and they will be able to provide better standards of care.
The funding has come as welcome news for both staff and students at the University of Florida and local people; last year the Pew Report ranked Florida as one of the worst states for providing dental care to children, grading the state an ‘F’ for services for underprivileged children. Florida was one of just nine states to get the grade.
The separate grants will be used to focus on major issues relating to dental services in Florida; some of the money will be used to recruit more dental students, some will be used to raise awareness of oral health in the community and some will be used to enhance services for local children.
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