Dental Mobile Clinic

Photo by Susanica Tam

Health

USC Puts Dental Care Within Reach for Underserved Families

Dentists travel to patients with Ostrow School of Dentistry’s mobile clinics.

December 07, 2016 Elisa Huang

In the 1960s, faculty and students from the Herman Ostrow School of Dentistry of USC used to pack their cars with dental tools and drive to remote communities to help patients who had no local care. Some 50 years later, the school is home to the country’s most extensive mobile dental clinic fleet. And it’s getting bigger. The Ostrow School just unveiled its newest rolling clinic—the world’s largest—made possible by a gift from the Hutto-Patterson Charitable Foundation. Today, eight mobile clinics staffed with dental students and faculty visit underserved urban and rural communities across California. Here are some facts about the program:

80,000+

Number of children who have been served in USC’s mobile clinics

$1+ million

Amount in free dental care provided to underserved communities annually

8

Dental chair stations in the new clinic

48 feet by 22 feet

Size of the Ostrow School’s new mobile clinic

1968

The year the Ostrow School first created a mobile clinic to serve migrant farm workers in California