Grant 445: The NAME Project: Changing the Narrative and Ensuring Data Access

Disparities in oral healthcare outcomes illustrate a clear line between populations in the United States who are able to access regular dental care, and medically underserved communities struggling to receive basic and sometimes life-saving treatment. The Narratives and Medical Education (NAME) project focuses on working with public libraries in Maryland (and across the country) to provide safe and alternative places for medically underserved communities to acquire information about oral health care that specifically answers questions about: access to care, health education and the history of dental care in America. Narratives that tell the stories of oral health care in Maryland and across the United States are being collected, and this project aims to make these stories available via a user-friendly database that will be available online and at academic and public libraries.  This database is being developed for medically underserved communities, prospective patients, educators, students and clinicians.  Dental school faculty will use this database as a tool to teach public health dentistry and to introduce narrative health into their curricula.