Partnering with NYU Dentistry to serve patients with disabilities
It is estimated that in New York City alone, 920,000 people have some type of disability. To help meet their needs, the NYU College of Dentistry developed a facility that opened on April 18th. Obtaining dental care can be a challenge for patients with disabilities as not all clinicians are equipped with the training or the facilities needed. Patients with disabilities often end up going to hospitals for dental care because of the need for sedation. The result of this is a wait time of as much as six months for an appointment to be seen in an operating room.
Additionally, nearly 100,000 New Yorkers use a wheelchair and among the many other barriers to receiving care, not all dental offices are wheelchair accessible. The lack of options has left many people and their families frustrated. To address this critical need, the NYU College of Dentistry had the idea to build a new facility designed specifically for patients with disabilities in the New York metropolitan area.
The Dentsply Sirona project team: Jörg Vogel (3rd f l.), Vice President Sales International Special Clinic Solutions, Melissa Marlin (3rd f. r.), Executive Sales Account Manager, Institutional Accounts, Chip Farnham (2nd f. r.), Director of Institutional Sales, Josef Mitterberger (1st on the r.), Head of Sales International Special Clinic Solutions Asia/Pacific, Turkey and UK.
A facility developed through co-creation
Located just northwest of Peter Cooper Village in Manhattan, with a view onto the Empire State Building, the NYU Dentistry Oral Health Center for People with Disabilities has nine specially equipped treatment rooms and two sedation suites overseen by anesthesiologists, which reduces the need for patients to be referred to hospitals. The 8,000-square-foot facility aims to receive 8,000 patient visits in its first year and then increase capacity to 10,000 patient visits by year two.
To help patients cope with potential anxiety, a multisensory room is under development aimed at reducing stress and increasing comfort. It involves a team of engineers, designers, educators, artists, occupational and physical therapists as well as speech language pathologists working at the intersection of disability and technology from the NYU Ability Project. Importantly, planning for the new facility was a collaborative effort that included healthcare advocacy groups, as well as focus groups of patients with disabilities conducted with the team from the Ability Project.
Partnering to meet the needs of patients
Dentsply Sirona has had a long-standing partnership with NYU Dentistry. Melissa Marlin, Executive Sales Account Manager, Institutional Accounts, made the case to the NYU management that Dentsply Sirona and its partners could provide a complete solution to equip the new clinic for all of its needs including two bariatric treatment centers, and a wheelchair tipper.
I was there helping when the first patient to use the wheelchair tipper had his appointment. He happened to be a paralyzed veteran and the special equipment that we were able to supply for the clinic gave him the dignity that every patient deserves when being treated. I’m so proud to work for a company that’s able to make something like that possible. Patients with special needs are all too often hidden and this clinic is helping to bring these issues into the open."
The process had classic New York challenges: unloading equipment into the building was a logistical nightmare and when the casework team arrived from Germany to lend their expertise to finish the project, a New York City union gave them only three days to accomplish what would normally take eight. The Dentsply Sirona team finished in 2.5.
The collaboration resulted in a lot of attention from major news outlets (including the NY Times), and the clinic will serve as an example forothers providing dental care to patients with disabilities.