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Why Join?
Why Join?
LPDS aims to increase retention rates of Latinx pre-dental students by providing workshops, networking, mentorship, and volunteering opportunities. UCLA School of Dentistry’s Hispanic Student Dental Association (HSDA) members offer our LPDS members mentorship and guidance on their journeys to dental school and beyond. We offer our members unique opportunities that include a tight-knit community of students from similar backgrounds and hands-on experiences. Ultimately, we hope to be of assistance and help pre-dental students who have faced adversities that come with being a first-generation student from an underrepresented background.
Our Mission
Our Mission
Our purpose is to create a welcoming community for pre-dental students, offering opportunities and experiences that are reflective of oral health disparities within the Latinx community. This is established by expanding dental services directly to communities of interest, advocating for equitable dental care policy, and collaborating with community partners to increase oral health education in underserved communities
Findings
Findings
According to the American Dental Association (ADA), Latinx providers make up approximately 6% of the dental profession in the United States as of 2023. Additionally, an estimated 68.5 million adults in the United States, many belonging to the Latinx community, do not have dental insurance as of 2023. We have noticed that there are significant gaps in dental care, procedures, and assessment stemming from economic disparity. Present are also the eminent challenges that language barriers create, preventing Spanish-speaking and undocumented Latinx communities from engaging and understanding the comprehensiveness of their dental health. This disconnect from the dental profession allows for inequalities, misconceptions, and accessibilities to grow, furthering the failure to address potential critical oral health conditions.
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