Dean's Message

The dental profession, like other healing arts, is best understood as a calling to help people in their time of need. One tangible response to this calling finds expression in the student and faculty volunteers who staff the Community Dental Clinic at UCSF. This initiative materialized out of the participants' deep commitment to serve a population of patients who the vicisstudes of life have rendered exceptionally vulnerable--the homeless and transiently-housed. The Community Dental Clinic at UCSF offers patients a very positive oral health care environment by providing both sensitivity and high-quality dental care. In return, students begin to apprehend the clinical and social needs of this segment of our community. Students and faculty bring their talent, knowledge, and skill to serve in a very special way and, in doing so, they help the dental profession fulfill its mission of service to humanity--an aspiration that the graduates of the School will care with them throughout their careers in dentistry.