09/24/2020
Since 2015, the LECOM Dental Offices in Erie, Pennsylvania have been offering affordable dental care for qualifying patients.
Dr. Matthew Bateman, Dean of the LECOM School of Dental Medicine oversees the care provided by dental students who complete their clinical training at the site. At least fifty dental students arrive in Erie in late May to begin seeing patients. These students already have completed three years of didactic and clinical training at the LECOM School of Dental Medicine in Bradenton, Florida.
Under the direct supervision of licensed dentists, the students provide total comprehensive care to patients. Each patient receives a treatment plan that delineates the dental procedures specifically required by the patient. The goal at this state-of-the-art Dental Practice is to provide high-quality, ethical, and affordable patient-centered care to serve the needs of a diverse population.
The students use the latest diagnostic and patient record-keeping tools as they learn to work in a typical dental practice. Those diagnostic tools include full mouth digital X-rays and cutting-edge electronic medical record software. The dental office houses three group practices, each named for benefactors who have contributed to the LECOM Student Scholarship Fund. Each practice is fully equipped and functions as a modern dental office. Ten treatment rooms in each group ensure that every student will treat at least three patients per day as the student dentists provide restorative dental care services such as cleanings, periodontal treatments, crowns, root canal therapy, extractions, dental restorations, and full and partial dental prostheses.
Over the course of the last five years, the dental offices have significantly benefited the oral health of local residents. LECOM is the only dental school in the nation in which students practice at college-owned and operated community-based dental offices and where they spend their entire fourth year treating individuals who, otherwise, may have forfeited dental care. The goal at LECOM is to provide students with a full range of learning opportunities so that upon graduation, they will be wholly prepared to practice successfully in areas where the need for oral health care is greatest.
LECOM, serving as a reliable and regular bulwark of the economic foundation of Erie County, built the dental offices that now employ more than 40 dentists, hygienists, and support staff. In addition, LECOM Clinical Practices offer a primary care physician office within the same building as the dental offices.
An additional 50 LECOM students perform similarly at the LECOM Dental Clinic in DeFuniak Springs, Florida as the clinic serving Northwest Florida supports the dental needs in the Sunshine State.
