The planned renovation and expansion of the Special Needs Clinic is designated to serve patients with disabilities and greatly increase current services to this underserved population by allowing clinicians-in-training to treat a greater number of patients. The clinic serves to train future dental professionals in best practices of dental care for patients with disabilities which, in turn, will increase the number of potential future care providers.

Special needs dentistry has been a part of the School of Dental Medicine since the 1970s and has provided high-quality dental care to patients with disabilities from Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. The School of Dental Medicine is striving to meet the increasing demands for special needs dental treatment by serving over 600 patients with disabilities annually. The dental needs of this population are often unmet, either because providers do not have the necessary training to care for them properly, or because they cannot be cared for in a conventional setting. This is decidedly a population with access to health care concerns.

The School of Dental Medicine recently received a capital allocation from the University of Pittsburgh to renovate a portion of the facility for special needs dental care. Along with support from the FISA Foundation, the anticipated facility will be able to substantially increase the number of patients with disabilities scheduled for treatment and increase the number of future dentists trained to care for them.