Nothing says West Baltimore skyline quite like the towering halls of the University of Maryland, Baltimore.
With new Biopark incubator buildings as well as teaching and student towers going up or in planning stages, university leadership is quite conscious of its impact on the communities surrounding Maryland?s oldest public university.
“We really want to promote involvement in our communities,” UMB President Dr. David Ramsay said.
Student-led programs, like Project Jump Start, reach out to the homeless in West Baltimore, providing food and toiletries while students use their training to try to identify medical needs, as well as sources of care.
Dental school doctoral candidate Leila Liberman started a program with the Maryland Dental Hygienists Association to provide free tooth seals for elementary schoolchildren.
“Sealants are a protective coating you put on teeth to protect them from tooth decay,” she said.
“It?s a way to help underserved children. Decaying teeth in the younger population is very prevalent.”
This year, during the one-day sealing workshop, the program screened 30 children and sealed teeth for 29 of them. They also referred children for treatment of tooth decay.
U.S. Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Baltimore City, recently announced an agreement between the dental school and United Health Group?s AmeriChoice dental insurance company to improve pediatric dental services in Maryland, particularly for low-income families.
Cummings was moved by the death of Alyce Driver?s son, Deamonte, of Prince George?s County, earlier this year after a tooth infection spread to his brain.
AmeriChoice agreed to provide the dental school more than $170,000 a year for new services and programs to help low-income children receive dental care.
