Access to care programs

Mobile Dentistry Program

The Advocate Mobile Dental Program operates a fully equipped two treatment room 40’ mobile dental van that delivers dental care where it is needed most at various sites in the community. The mobile program works specifically with 18 partner sites throughout the city of Chicago and greater Chicagoland area to provide much needed care, and for 20 years it has been a reliable source of dental care for the underserved. The communities include low-income neighborhoods as well as groups who face special challenges accessing dental care without support such as children, seniors, individuals with mental illness and other disabilities, and people who have recently experienced homelessness.

Special Patient Dental Care Program

More than 3,000 adults and children with developmental disabilities visit our compassionate experts each year through our Special Patient Dental Care Program. Since 1970, this unique program has been providing comprehensive oral health services to these patients. Our services include:

• Dental exams
• Cleanings
• X-rays
• Fillings
• Root canal treatments
• Extractions
• Crowns
• Tooth replacements
• IV sedation
• Operating room dentistry

Download registration forms here.

More info: Call 773-871-2188 to discuss Special Patient Dental Care Program eligibility and appointment scheduling.

ADAF grant

The American Dental Association Foundation has awarded a three-year, $375,000 grant to Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center to support a new program designed to improve access to oral health care for children with special needs.

The grant funding supports the medical center’s dental anesthesiology residency program, which operates in conjunction with the General Practice Residency and Special Patient Dental Care programs to deliver oral care to patients with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The new program will be a model for the advanced training of dental anesthesiologists, who often have to provide deep sedation or general anesthesia for children with developmental or physical disabilities. These children’s access to such care is often limited by the availability of hospital operating room time.

“The special needs program at Advocate Illinois Masonic is truly impressive,” said Dr. William R. Calnon, ADA Foundation president. “Children with all types of disabilities, both developmental and physical, are provided with access to excellent treatment. The dental anesthesia residency is a very innovative addition to an already superb program and will allow more kids to avoid hospital operating rooms.”

Program goals include:

• Expanding the medical center’s special needs dentistry program to serve more children at an earlier age through referral relationships that link children with special needs to a dental home at the dental center.
• Improving care for children with special needs through increased capacity to manage cases in an outpatient setting.
• Providing a model program for improving the oral health status of children with special needs.

“This generous grant will enable us to enhance our special needs dentistry program by further expanding access to oral care for this very vulnerable patient population,” said Dr. James Benz, chair of dentistry at Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center.

Advocate Illinois Masonic’s dental anesthesia residents work alongside general practice residents to treat patients with special needs in the operating room and newly built anesthesia suite in the department of dentistry. The program is enhanced by a mobile dental van, which residents rotate weekly with staff to offer oral care to special needs patients who would not otherwise be able to access this type of care.

Read letter from Dr. James Benz [PDF].

Download dental anesthesiology referral form [PDF].