Plymouth Uni offering free oral care to homeless

The University of Plymouth and Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise run a weekly community clinic from the Devonport Dental Education Facility offering free dental treatment to the homeless in the area. This is just one of four such facilities across Devon and Cornwall where students from Peninsula Dental School are supervised by qualified professional to treat patients within the community. Patients have reacted incredibly positively to the scheme and said that it has had a huge effect on them, not just when it comes to pain relief and motivation to look after their teeth, but also feelings of confidence, self-esteem and self-worth.
Director of social engagement and community-based dentistry at University of Plymouth Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry and chief executive of PDSE, Robert Witton, said: “There are only a small number of providers offering a service like this for people experiencing homelessness and our community- supported model of delivery is unique. We use link workers in the community and a non-clinical outreach approach to engage with individuals as people rather than as patients first before their dental journey begins. As a committed social enterprise we currently provide this service as a pro bono contribution to the local community recognising this group of people are not able to access care easily through other NHS routes.”