Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending - Construction - UNLV School of Dental Medicine Website: unlv.edu Grant program funds: $2,000,000
University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV) School of Dental Medicine will construct an outpatient clinical facility to provide oral health care for older adult patients and patients with special needs. The Advanced Needs Dental Clinic (ANDC) will exist within an academic dental learning environment as the only outpatient care facility of its kind in the State of Nevada improving access to oral health care for patients with intellectual disabilities, developmental disabilities, other medical, physical, or psychiatric issues. The purpose of the ANDC is to eliminate barriers for Nevada’s children, adults and older adults with specialized healthcare needs to access care and to educate a future oral health workforce to care for patients with disabilities in a general practice setting. To provide care for people whose disabilities or medical conditions prevent them from receiving treatment in a conventional dental setting, there is often a requirement for specialized operatories, equipment, and accommodations for mobility issues, including for those who are wheelchair-bound or non-ambulatory. Dental students will develop knowledge, values, skills and tools to provide care for special needs patients within their general dental practice. Creation of the ANDC requires a major renovation to establish clinical space that is accommodating, accessible, respectful and functional. ANDC will be located in Building D and will encompass 3,944 square feet of space within the footprint of the existing structure. A reconfiguration of waiting areas for the Orthodontic, General Practice Residency and Faculty Practice clinics is needed. The design infrastructure supports dental treatment units with compressed air and electrica l, and the purchase of additional equipment. Extensive plumbing improvements for each of the 8 new operatories requires drains, water supply, wastewater disposal, and air compression. Excavation into the existing foundation and modification of the existing sprinkler system are required. Electrical conduits will be run to each dental unit, dental intake area and dental outprocessing station along with data wiring. Subpanels for electrical support and additional data equipment will be updated. The ANDC will be a state-of-the-art facility designed to allow a unidirectional patient flow to reduce or eliminate congestion. The clinic will be configured using a model with a reception area accessible to patients upon arrival, treatment areas with dental operatories that are equipped for sedation, vertical wheelchair lifts, and a gurney that allows for dental treatment for surgical care and for non-ambulatory patients, and a discharge area separate from the entry area. Advanced radiological support will be incorporated into the design. Due to the unique needs of these patient populations, treatment unit design will include space for patient as well as caregiver instruction. Plans for the ANDC utilize space currently supporting Business Office functions. Therefore, a remodel of space in the adjacent Building B is proposed to centralize business functions in one location. The remodel of non-clinical space will include the removal of office walls to create an open design within the 495 square feet of space. Cubicles will be installed and this award will provide support for upgrading and expanding existing infrastructure (electrical, HVAC). This award allows the UNLV School of Dental Medicine to improve access to dental services for geriatric and special needs patients in Nevada, where 87% of the state is rural/frontier. This will occur through the creation of the new ANDC facility, enabling the provision of services and training for not only immediate, but long term oral healt h care needs.