Dental Health and Oral Care

Biography

Biography: Mahnaz Fatahzadeh

Abstract

American Cancer Society estimates nearly 50,000 Americans are diagnosed with oral cancer this year and many with advanced disease succumb to death within 5 years or experience significant morbidity. Delayed diagnosis is the primary reason for poor medical outcome and both education and early detection considered key to improving survival rate. Service-Learning is a viable and effective strategy for engaging students in activities which benefit society and reinforce their classroom instruction. Last year marked 20^th anniversary of our annual oral cancer screening event at the Rutgers School of Dental Medicine.

The goals of this service-learning program were to provide oral cancer education and screening for a high risk, underserved population, to strengthen diagnostic skills for detecting premalignant mucosal lesions, to promote community engagement and to foster a model for delivery of inter-professional collaborative health care.  Calibrated pre and post-doctoral student volunteers supervised by faculty staffed the operation. In recent years, the event included a health fair offering comprehensive education and/or screenings for diabetes, hypertension as well as breast, cervical, prostate and colorectal cancer by volunteer medical personnel.

In this study, we evaluated the perception of 20^th anniversary participants using an IRB-approved survey.  The majority of respondants felt more confident in performing oral cancer screening after taking part in this event (81%) and rated the experience as fulfilling, clinically beneficial (95%) and conducive to future community engagement (86%).  Integration of service-learning programs in dental curriculum help reinforce didactic concepts through clinical exposure, advance spirit of voluntarism and promote inter-professional collaboration.