Faculty and students bring dental care to athletes at Special Olympics games

Students and faculty from the College of Dental Medicine provided care to more than 200 athletes at the Special Olympics games
Students and faculty from the College of Dental Medicine provided care to more than 200 athletes at the Special Olympics games

Faculty and students from the University of New England College of Dental Medicine (CDM) recently traveled to Orono, Maine, to participate in the Special Smiles event at the Maine Special Olympics summer games.

The Special Smiles event offers dental screenings, fluoride varnish, oral hygiene instruction and mouthguard fabrication for athletes participating in the games.

Rachel King, D.D.S., M.P.H., assistant clinical professor in the CDM, is the Special Smiles clinical director for the state of Maine.

Thirty-seven students and six faculty members assisted in the event by providing services to more than 200 athletes.

The event was part of the Special Olympics Healthy Athletes program, which offers health services and information to athletes in need all over the world.

More than 155,000 health care professionals and students have been trained to treat people with intellectual disabilities through the program, making it the largest global public health organization dedicated to serving people with disabilities.

Healthy Athletes offers health screenings in the areas of dentistry, podiatry, physical therapy, audiology, vision, physical examinations and well-being.

Officially launched in 1997, and active in more than 130 countries, the program has provided improved care to millions of individuals.

 

 

 

About the University of New England

The University of New England is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of flexible, accredited online degrees. In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.