Our mission is to improve the access to, and productvity of, the oral healthcare system by identifying, nurturing, and leveraging promising projects.

DTAF 2009 $25,000 Grant Award Recipients

Children's Dental Health Project (CDHP)
Recent legislation has provided the underserved child populations of the US with a key opportunity to gain greater access to critically important oral health care. To fully take advantage of this opportunity, guidance needs to be delivered to federal and state administrations. CDHP will expand access to dental care for the 15 million children newly provided with comprehensive dental coverage in the federal Child Health Insurance Program (CHIP) by providing technical policy assistance to federal and state governments and child advocates as they work to implement CHIP's eight new dental provisions.

Smiles for Success
Smiles for Success works to offer free dental services to women currently enrolled or graduated from a welfare-to-work program, which will allow them to become financially independent. The dental care offered is intended to boost self-esteem, and be a short-term solution for those who need a treatment that is unavailable to them through government programs or traditional insurance means as the women move from welfare to work.

Piedmont Virginia Dental Health Foundation
One of the keys to solving the access to care issue is to improve the productivity of the existing dental workforce model. This has been the focus of the Foundation's initiative with Virginia Commonwealth University School of Dentistry, training students to see 7-8 patients / day instead of the 2 that they're able to treat in the dental school environment. Grant goals include increasing capacity to rotate every senior dental student through this model, and to provide needed same-day crown services to our patient population, while exposing dental students to the most up-to-date technologies in the marketplace. It is hoped that this model can be utilized across the nation.

TeamSmile Dental Outreach
TeamSmile Dental Outreach is a 501(c) non-profit organization that provides free dental services to underserved children in the community by teaming up with dental and sports professionals to provide a unique, one-of-a-kind experience. The children receive the dental treatment that they need while being supported by their local sports team and their marquee players. Local dental school students, dentists, hygienists, dental vendors, dental manufacturers, dental insurance companies and the rest of the dental community are involved. The TeamSmile concept has the potential for explosive growth, tremendous reach into the public sector, and marquee visibility for the DTA Foundation.