CDA Foundation Grant Supports Expansion of Community-Based Clinical Education
Three new clinical training sites embedded in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs) joined CBCE during the 2025-26 school year.
With generous support from the California Dental Association (CDA) Foundation, the School continued to expand its Community-Based Clinical Education (CBCE) initiative in 2025-26, strengthening its commitment to student clinical education beyond campus and improving access to oral health care in underserved communities nationwide.
A major milestone was the addition of three new clinical training sites embedded in Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHCs), made possible through CDA Foundation grant funding; currently, 22 practice sites are affiliated with CBCE. Almost half of all students in the Class of 2026 rotated through at least one of the new grant-supported sites. Sites also reported an improvement in clinical capacity and improved patient access through the integration of student rotations.
Alongside this grant-supported growth, UCLA Dentistry expanded its community-based curriculum for fourth-year dental students, who now complete a pair of four-week clinical rotations, totaling eight weeks of immersive training. The school also introduced IDS 307: Community-Engaged Learning in Dentistry: Clinical Contexts in Community Dentistry, a new third-year course designed to prepare students for their CBCE experience.
During the 2025–26 academic year, students provided care for 6,862 unique patients – the highest patient volume in the initiative’s nine-year history – while delivering 18,935 procedures.