Student and faculty volunteers revitalize neighborhood free clinic
Two fourth-year dental students, Cindy How, DDS ’26, and Dylan He, DDS ’26, have revived a once-thriving volunteer dental service project, building a team of students and faculty who contribute two Mondays or Thursdays a month for “dental specialty nights”.
The multidisciplinary Phillips Neighborhood Clinic (PNC) had been operating without any dental department since 2020, and when How and He learned that the school’s participation had lapsed, they galvanized students and faculty into action. Along with Quyen Nguyen, DDS ’25, they worked together to re-introduce dentistry to the clinic. “We had a series of conversations that ultimately grew into a coordinated plan to rebuild the dental department from the ground up,” How said.
“We began the PNC Dental project by shadowing regular clinic nights to understand workflow and identify how dentistry could be integrated into PNC’s interprofessional model,” How said. “We conducted patient and volunteer surveys, developed proposals and met with both the School of Dentistry administration and the PNC Board to address logistics, safety and feasibility."
“With the support of Lee Prohofsky, DDS, who joined as our faculty advisor, we refined our plans and established the necessary systems, training and protocols,” she said. Brian Sick, MD, MHA, FACP, FNAP, Vice Provost for Academic Health Sciences and the Medical Director of the clinic for the last 19 years, worked with the dental students and the PNC student Administrative Board on the logistics of getting the dental specialty night restarted. Other faculty participants include Steve Humbert, DDS ‘79, Andy Aldrich, DDS ’20, Augusto Saldarriaga, DDS, MS, FACP, clinical assistant professor and director of the Division of Prosthodontics, and Patty Hughes, LDH, BSDH, clinical assistant professor of dental hygiene.
The free clinic is a first-come, first-served event that’s held at the St Paul Lutheran Church in the Phillips Neighborhood of Minneapolis. The multidisciplinary clinic includes students from fifteen health profession programs at the University. \
“We’ve been lucky to have 12 to 15 volunteers each night,” How said. Patients have been seen for periodontal health, tissue trauma, denture and pros issues, cavities, endo-related tooth infections and needs for extractions. Children with dental concerns have also seen.
“Interprofessional collaboration is one of PNC’s strongest features,” Prohofsky said. “We work closely with medical teams, pharmacy students, physical therapists, mental health volunteers and community health workers. For School of Dentistry students, this work provides opportunities to shadow and serve the community at large outside of the school.”
He and Prohofsky shared an example of a recent patient who came in for dental pain but also screened positive for uncontrolled hypertension, food insecurity, and depression symptoms. The medical team stabilized their blood pressure and provided referral resources. Pharmacy students discussed medication adherence and side effects. The mental health team provided same-night support and follow-up planning. The dental team identified an abscess and immediately connected the patient with affordable local clinics.
“PNC Dental is the only student-run clinic hosting our monthly screening events in the Phillips Neighborhood,” Dr. Prohofsky said. “We hope to grow in the future by providing more dental services for patients in need. Right now, we wish more people knew what we were doing so that we can serve more patients. Oral health is an essential part of overall health, and I felt strongly that dentistry shouldn’t be left out of an interprofessional clinic for underserved patients,” How said.