When Shivani Iyer, a fourth-year student at Penn’s School of Dental Medicine, checked a patient’s blood pressure this spring, she noticed it was alarmingly high. Normally, she would have referred the patient to a primary care provider. At Penn Dental Medicine at PHMC on Cedar, she simply walked them upstairs.
“I think a lot of times you can tell a patient something, and it doesn’t end up happening because of barriers or other factors preventing them from getting care,” Iyer said. “Being able to take a patient directly for a medical evaluation when they need it is incredibly helpful.”
This seamless connection between dental and medical care is intentional. Penn Dental on Cedar, the School’s newest community care site, opened in January 2024 at the PHMC Public Health Campus on Cedar, located at 54th Street and Cedar Avenue in the former Mercy Hospital building. The campus also houses the PHMC Health Center on Cedar, a federally qualified health center, and HUP Cedar, which provides emergency, inpatient, and behavioral health services.
Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia operates a crisis response center for pediatric mental and behavioral emergencies. In its first year, Penn Dental on Cedar completed 8,350 dental procedures.
“Maintaining optimal oral health is essential to overall well-being,” said Morton Amsterdam Dean Mark S. Wolff of Penn Dental Medicine.
“Integrating dental care within a collaborative-care center like Cedar, where patients can access comprehensive health services, improves health outcomes.”
At its core, the Cedar care center acts as a bridge—not only between Penn Dental Medicine and West and Southwest Philadelphia communities but also between different types of care.
A Bridge Between Dental and Medical Care
Medical-dental integration is a key part of Penn Dental Medicine’s model. At Cedar, this integration is the most comprehensive of the School’s community programs. The campus provides behavioral health services, prenatal and postnatal care, emergency care, and more. Critically, patients’ dental and medical records are integrated electronically.
“Linking medical and dental care reinforces the idea that dentistry is part of overall health,” said Cassandra Gafford, assistant professor of clinical community oral health and director of the Community Oral Health Clinics at Penn Dental Medicine. “It also helps people who might not normally have access to a dentist find care here.”
Penn Dental at Cedar is staffed by a mix of third- and fourth-year dental students, residents from the Advanced Education in General Dentistry program, faculty, and hygienists. Students and hygienists also offer free, optional screenings on select days as part of physical exams.
“Many people without regular dental care only seek help when there’s a problem,” Gafford said. “Here at Cedar, if a patient mentions they haven’t seen a dentist in a while during a medical visit, they can be directed downstairs to schedule an appointment immediately.”
Co-locating medical and dental services also benefits the emergency department. Patients with dental emergencies can be referred directly to Penn Dental, freeing up emergency resources. Gafford said this happens multiple times daily. Patients benefit too, as emergency rooms often lack X-ray equipment for dental diagnoses, and physicians do not have the specialized expertise of a dentist. Sometimes, as in Iyer’s case, a dental visit reveals signs of broader health issues—like hypertension or diabetes—allowing for immediate medical referral.
Since Dean Wolff’s arrival in 2018, Penn Dental Medicine’s community sites have expanded both the scope of restorative care and the range of treatments available. Today, most procedures are performed on-site at Cedar, with more complex cases referred to the dental school’s specialty services as needed.
