The University of
Florida Health Science Center was expanded in 1975 to accommodate
the space needs of the recently established College of Dentistry
and to provide additional needed space for the other colleges
and the hospital.
The 12-story Dental
Sciences Building, which was completed at that time, includes
dental outpatient clinics, postgraduate and specialty clinics,
offices for dental faculty, seminar rooms, and teaching and
research laboratories.
Most of the College
of Dentistry's dental programs and faculty are housed in its
facilities at the University of Florida Health Science Center
in Gainesville, however the college owns or is affiliated with
several extramural clinics throughout Florida. The college operates
a satellite dental clinic in Jacksonville which includes two
advanced general dentistry residency programs; one for advanced
dental procedures and the other for training and experience
with medically compromised and disabled patients.
In 1991 the college
established a clinic in downtown St. Petersburg with a special
commitment to provide care for the low-income elderly and other
special populations who have difficulty accessing dental care.
In 1997 the college
opened its third satellite clinic in Hialeah enabling students
and residents to provide dental services to low/moderate income
populations in South Florida.
Most recently, an
affiliation between the college and Community Health Centers,
Inc. established a 12-month advanced general dentistry residency.
The clinic is located in Apopka (Greater Orlando area) and provides
health services to the low-income predominantly adult community.
The college's Gainesville
general practice residents have extramural rotations to Marion
County Health Department in Ocala and the Shands Community Practice
at Eastside.
In addition to these
facilities, students in the D.M.D. program are assigned to external
rotations in a variety of sites throughout the state. Currently,
these include the Alachua County Organization for Rural Needs
(ACORN) Clinic in Brooker, the Shands Community Practice at
Eastside in Gainesville, the Manatee County Rural Health Services
clinics in Bradenton, the Community Health Centers in Apopka,
the Marion E. Fether Medical Center in Immokalee, and the college's
Jacksonville clinic.
These are only examples
of academic affiliations in effect or in stages of development
by the College of Dentistry to establish residency and advanced
education programs in general dentistry and dental specialties,
and to establish mechanisms for student clinical rotations,
the education of auxiliary personnel, and the development of
continuing education activities.
