After more than a decade of an informal relationship between USC School of Dentistry and AYUDA’s Orange County clinic, a volunteer-based clinic that provides free dental care to Orange County children, is now affiliated with the USC School of Dentistry.

The effort to make AYUDA part of the USCSD family of community outreach programs was led by student director and junior doctoral dental student Joe Field, and faculty member Harris Done—who created the Orange County program and serves on the board of directors for the national organization.

This affiliated USCSD clinic expands the school’s outreach even further into the underserved pockets of Orange County.  In these communities, Done says, the need is great, but the available services are at a minimum.  According to a recent report released by Healthy Smiles for Kids of Orange County, one in three Orange County children have visible, untreated dental decay, far outpacing the state average.

“The need out there is tremendous and AYUDA is doing its part,” Done says.  “We are often the first and only time a child in that area has seen a dentist.  Since we’ve established the clinics, we have been able to see our impact.  There has been improvement.”

The clinic relies totally on volunteer hours from USC doctoral dental students, who receive no class credit for their services.  Volunteers conduct daylong clinics once a month in partnership with Orange County schools and other local organizations.  Services include restorative treatment and hygiene instruction.  Since 1991, the AYUDA clinic in Orange County has treated 27,000 school-age children, and serves 1,200 per year, Done says.

For Field, this new affiliation means the school is giving AYUDA’s clinic its stamp of approval.

“It makes us feel good about the work we were doing.  We always knew we were doing important work, that we were bringing an important service to an underserved community,” Field says.

Becoming an affiliated clinic means AYUDA can also make referrals to the school’s existing network of hospitals and clinics, including the pediatric clinic at Children’s Hospital Orange County (CHOC).

Field and Done worked closely with Roseann Mulligan, associate dean of the school’s Community Health Programs, and Marina Jimenez, director of Quality Assurance, to verify that the level of service at the clinic matched that being taught at the school’s other facilities.  Paperwork was redesigned to mimic existing school forms and the team collaborated on ways to streamline the procedures at the Orange County site.

It has been an endless pursuit of perfection, Field says: “We’re constantly self-evaluating.  How can we make things better and move more efficiently?”

This new agreement is limited to the Orange County clinics, with discussions taking place on how to expand the agreement to AYUDA’s annual international trips.  Volunteers still will not receive credit.  But, says Jimenez, credit is not what has engendered the tremendous level of commitment from volunteer students and faculty.

While Jimenez was there evaluating the site, she met one mother who brought seven of her children in for screenings.  “Our volunteers are there at the crack of dawn to provide a service to people who don’t have many options.  That tells me how important this clinic is.”

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