UF Dentistry to dedicate center in Naples

The University of Florida College of Dentistry will dedicate the Naples Children and Education Foundation Pediatric Dental Center at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 29, on the Collier County Campus of Edison State College in Naples.

The dental center represents a collaboration between NCEF, a philanthropic foundation;and UF, Edison College and Collier Health Services Inc.

The center opened on Dec. 3, 2008, and has since treated more than 1,000 of Collier County's Medicaid-eligible and at-risk pediatric patients in its two-story, 20,000-square-foot dental clinic and educational facility.

Edison College district board of trustees approved a long-term land lease agreement with UF to give the facility an academic home. The first floor of the two-story building is dedicated to UF's clinical operations. Edison College shares use of second-floor classrooms and laboratory space.

The NCEF also funded the Early Childhood Development Center, next to the dental center, on the Edison campus. The buildings will be dedicated together and represent the NCEF's commitment to filling the most severe gaps in services for underprivileged and at-risk children in the community.

"Tooth decay is the most common infectious childhood disease but its impact on children's health and cognitive development is too often overlooked," said UF College of Dentistry Dean Teresa A. Dolan. "When left untreated, painful tooth decay impairs a child's ability to eat, speak and to do well in school, and it is children from families with the least resources who are most likely to suffer. This clinic helps turn that situation around for Collier County children."

The dental facility at the Edison site is the UF College of Dentistry's newest clinic in its Statewide Network for Community Oral Health. The network comprises UF's Gainesville and community-based clinics in Hialeah, St. Petersburg and Jacksonville as well as 14 county health department, community health center and private not-for-profit partner clinics statewide.