{"id":50529,"date":"2021-09-23T15:46:05","date_gmt":"2021-09-23T19:46:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/?p=50529"},"modified":"2021-09-23T15:46:05","modified_gmt":"2021-09-23T19:46:05","slug":"dmd-as-student-receives-grant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/2021\/09\/23\/dmd-as-student-receives-grant\/","title":{"rendered":"DMD AS student receives grant to continue oral health promotion work in Iowa"},"content":{"rendered":"

Before moving to Boston to start the Doctor of Dental Medicine Advanced Standing program (DMD AS) at Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM), Olayinka Adekugbe DMD AS 22 completed a dental public health residency at the University of Iowa in Iowa City\u2014where she found that many African immigrants and refugees enrolled in Medicaid and living in Iowa were unaware that there was a dental wellness plan included in their health insurance. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cQuite a number of them didn\u2019t even know that they were entitled to get the [dental] wellness plan,\u201d\u00a0Adekugbe\u00a0said. \u201cMaybe they were not aware, or they just weren\u2019t sure how to access healthcare in general.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Adekugbe, a student at the Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM), created the Oral Health Program Project<\/a><\/span>,\u00a0which aims to make oral health care accessible to immigrants. She recently received a $25,000 grant from Delta Dental of Iowa to continue growing her organization.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIowa nonprofits stepped up to provide increased health care access and wellness education, covering gaps further widened by the economic constraints of the pandemic, especially for vulnerable populations,\u201d said Suzanne Heckenlaible, executive director for Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation. \u201cThe funding that Dr. Adekugbe received was used to support oral health education for African immigrants in the Iowa City area. Delta Dental of Iowa Foundation is proud to support this work to provide critical services to Iowans in need.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

The organization currently works to\u00a0raise awareness and to\u00a0connect the African population in Iowa\u00a0to oral healthcare services available to them.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThe healthcare system in America can be quite complex,\u201d\u00a0Adekugbe\u00a0said. \u201cHaving to navigate this, to get into the health system, sometimes you get tired.\u201d\u00a0Adekugbe\u2019s\u00a0organization helps immigrants navigate the system and\u00a0access\u00a0the\u00a0dental\u00a0services\u00a0they are\u00a0eligible for.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The organization has also worked to provide materials in different languages, including French and Swahili, with Arabic materials in the works.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe African immigrant population is\u00a0quite\u00a0diverse,\u201d\u00a0Adekugbe\u00a0said. \u201cThey speak French, they speak Swahili, they speak Arabic. I felt language was a barrier, so it was also creating language-appropriate oral health education that we could use with the different language groups.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThey have the healthcare education in their own language, not just in English. It makes it more comfortable,\u201d\u00a0Adekugbe\u00a0said.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Adekugbe\u00a0said that the next step for the organization is oral health screenings\u2014and she hopes that someday the organization will grow into a community dental health center.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople want services,\u201d\u00a0Adekugbe\u00a0said. \u201cMaybe in the future, we will need to have a community dental center, where we can provide those services.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Adekugbe, who also has a master\u2019s degree in public health from New York University and a master of science in dental public health from the University of Iowa and has worked with Save the Children and USAID, said that her time at GSDM has strengthened her clinical dentistry skills while transforming the way that she thinks about this project. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think wearing the clinical hat with the public health hat makes a better blend than when I was just a public health practitioner,\u201d\u00a0Adekugbe\u00a0said. \u201cHaving that blend\u2014everything coming together into one single piece\u2014is really very nice.\u201d\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>Oral Health Program Project\u00a0has also provided\u00a0Adekugbe\u00a0with another role\u2014as a mentor.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>\u201cIt\u2019s given me an opportunity to mentor young Africans in Iowa,\u201d Adekugbe said. \u201cMany of them are from war-torn countries. Sometimes just seeing that ‘<\/span>okay, she\u2019s African, she\u2019s like us, she\u2019s a woman,’ could be something more.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Before moving to Boston to start the Doctor of Dental Medicine Advanced Standing program (DMD AS) at Boston University Henry M. Goldman School of Dental Medicine (GSDM), Olayinka Adekugbe DMD AS 22 completed a dental public health residency at the University of Iowa in Iowa City\u2014where she found that many African immigrants and refugees enrolled […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16521,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13839,13837],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50529"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16521"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50529"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50535,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50529\/revisions\/50535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/dental\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}