Grant: Travel Awards - Institute Community Support

Downtown Eastside of Vancouver, one of the poorest communities in Canada, is a community that has a strong need for dental care. Due to lack of formal reports, however, there is no public accessible information on the condition of the dental and oral mucosa (skin in the mouth) health in this community. Also, there is no information on how the residents use dental care services in this community. The purposes of this study are to collect information in overall oral health including dental and oral mucosal health status and to find out how the dental care services have been used and what the challenges are in using these services. In addition, we will compare the data collected from this study to the recently published national oral health survey data. Our study showed that the DTES is a community with poorer oral health status, comparing to those of the Canadian low-income adults. Identifying barriers in dental care assess and channeling resources for preventative and treatment services are vital for oral health improvement.