STONY BROOK, N.Y. — Stony Brook School of Dental Medicine on Nov. 7 held a ribbon-cutting ceremony for its new Mobile Dental Care Center, a 45-foot clinic funded by a $750,000 grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation.
The vehicle will allow SDM faculty, residents and students to deliver comprehensive pediatric services — including crowns, extractions, cleanings, fluoride treatments and sealants — at schools, shelters and community sites across Long Island.
“People may see a ‘dental office on wheels,’” said Patrick Lloyd, DDS, dean of the SDM. “But for many children this will be their first dental experience — one that can shape how they approach dental care for life.”
Stony Brook University President Andrea Goldsmith praised the unit as an embodiment of the university’s mission to combine education, clinical care and community service.
William Wertheim, MD, executive vice president of Stony Brook Medicine, noted the outreach team’s recent impact: during the 2024–25 academic year the program held more than 130 events, treated some 2,600 pediatric patients and provided oral-health education to more than 13,000 children and adults.
The new Mobile Dental Care Center adds four expandable sections for more space, a panoramic X-ray for evaluating dental development, and onboard Starlink internet to update patient records in real time with the school’s Dental Care Center and Stony Brook University Hospital.
Rhona Sherwin, DDS ’78 and director of pediatric dentistry outreach, thanked the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation for supporting the school’s work to make dental care accessible to vulnerable children. “Care that may have seemed out of reach is now within reach,” she said.
Launched in 2012, the SDM’s mobile clinic has treated more than 4,000 patients to date. The new unit is intended to further the school’s mission to improve pediatric dental health equity across Long Island and in Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas in upstate New York.