The Department of Public Health Sciences at Texas A&M University College of Dentistry oversees outreach activities of the school. The department provides a diverse range of programs including oral health promotion and education and career-education programs.

The department’s dental sealant program which was started with a Crystal Charity Ball grant in 1999 now places in excess of 3,500 sealants on over 2,500 school age children in Dallas County annually (more than 30,000 over the past decade).

Extramural Clinics

North Dallas Shared Ministries 

Phone Number: (214) 358-8729
Address: 2875 Merrell Road Dallas, TX 75229
patients must reside in the city of Dallas

M.C. Cooper Dental Clinic

Phone Number: (214) 370-7260
Address: 4542 Scyene Road Dallas, TX 75210
patients must reside in the city of Dallas

Community Outreach

The department houses the Office of Social Services, which coordinates subsidized care for patients, funded by Ryan White grants, Texas Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services, Texas Department of Mental Health and Mental Retardation and other sources.

Social Services activities are part of Community Connections, a Texas A&M College of Dentistry extramural program that offers dental health education and dental and oral cancer screening examinations, and clinical dental treatment to the public at various community sites. Participation in a social services activity is a requirement of the Public Health Sciences department for all fourth-year dental students and is coordinated through the Social Services office.

Public and corporate health fairs provide the venue for many of these events. Flashlight and tongue blade dental screenings are offered to all visitors, and oral cancer exams are provided for adults. Dental health education is dispensed through a wide variety of pamphlets, brochures, and posters arranged in an attractive booth display, and giveaways are used to encourage interest and participation. A dentist must be on site to supervise students at each activity, and Texas A&M College of Dentistry contracts with retired and part-time faculty members on a per-event basis.

In addition to participating in these events, students may also provide oral screenings for entire student bodies at a Dallas-area school. They may also render dental care to patients at several area public health dental clinics that have an affiliation agreement with the college.

There were between four hundred and five hundred community service events that served more than 20,000 people during the 2018-2019 academic year.    

Community Service

Tooth Talk

Description:  a program of oral health education

Audience: primarily elementary, middle, and high school students; also teen mom classes, college classes, senior citizens and employee groups

Location: public and private schools in the Dallas area, Texas A&M College of Dentistry, business and civic sites

Community Service Clinical Activities

Description:   a program of dental examinations and treatment, and oral cancer screenings, and dental health education

1. Corporate and Community Health Fairs
2. Public Health Dental Clinics
3. Student Body Screenings in at-risk schools
4. Special Projects

Audience: people of all ages in the general population as well as student bodies and special population groups    

Location: various places such as civic centers, churches, schools, corporate sites, and public health dental clinics

Community Preceptor Program

• Description: two selective courses, Private Practice-SO98 and Public Health-SO99, through the Department of Public Health Sciences, which involve a one-week or two-week visit by a fourth-year dental student to a dental office or public health dental clinic
• Audience: patients in treatment at the various offices and clinics that students visit
• Location: private dental offices, group dental practice sites, and public health clinics in Alaska, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Oklahoma, Texas, and Utah

For more information on the community connection programs, contact Social Services, at ajwilson@tamu.edu.