ABSTRACT
The geriatric dentistry program, begun in 1982 with a $500,000, 5-year grant at the Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery is designed to prepare dental students to deal effectively and compassionately with the medical, psychological, social and economic concerns of elderly patients, as they affect dental treatment. The program gives students the opportunity to work directly, as members of a multidisciplinary team treating elderly patients, with both well and compromised seniors. The didactic components of the program have been integrated into the second and third years of the curriculum, with special clinical application in year four. The Geriatric Evaluation Group, consisting of a dentist, dental hygienist, social worker and gerontologist, works with students in the clinic as well as in small seminar groups, to provide them with an opportunity to participate in designing the treatment most appropriate for each geriatric patient.
