Rural Oral Health Track
The University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine’s Rural Oral Health Track is an elective for dental students interested in pursuing professional practice in a rural community.
More than two-thirds of Colorado’s 64 counties are rural or frontier and most are designated shortage areas for dental health workers. Across the Rocky Mountain region, rural dental health provider shortages persistently remain. Our goal is to increase the number of CU Dental students choosing to enter dental practice in rural and frontier areas and continue to practice successfully in those communities.
Overview
In
addition to oral health specific content, our rural track program provides access to extracurricular learning opportunities that cover a variety of rural health topics that are interprofessional focused. Students will complete the majority of learning
modules independently, participate in faculty-led small group discussion sessions, and engage with a rural preceptor. Building on over 35 years of the School’s successful community-based Advanced Clinical Training and Service (ACTS) program,
students will fulfill their experiential learning requirements in rural community dental practices. Rural track dental students will complete 15 weeks in rural and frontier clinics, with six weeks at the same site.
