UHS brings onsite dental service ‘pilot’ to campus

Princeton’s University Health Services (UHS), in collaboration with Cigna Healthcare and Jet Dental, will be bringing on-site dental care to campus from Nov. 18 and Dec. 13.

An email sent to the UHS outreach listserv from the Student Health Plan Office explained that these appointments will include X-rays and cleanings, and that anyone enrolled in the Cigna Dental plan may sign up for a slot at no additional cost.

“We know that it can be challenging for busy students to find time to get to the dentist off campus, so we wanted to pilot a ‘pop-up’ option to see if students like the convenience of getting dental cleanings and X-rays on campus,” explained Director of University Health Services Janet Finnie ’84 in an email to the the The Daily Princetonian. “If students like the service and the pilot is otherwise successful, we hope to continue [the program] into the future.”

The University’s Graduate School Government (GSG), whose recent campaigns have often focused on providing more accessible healthcare to students, also played a role in bringing dental services to campus.

“Dental access is a really big issue in the Princeton community more broadly, just because of the few dentists who take our insurance,” said Sam Kosai GS, a second year graduate student in the Department of Sociology and the GSG’s health and life officer. “So having not only readily available openings, but also having [the dentists] be on campus is a really great way for people to get their cleanings done when it might otherwise be a lot harder to schedule them.”

Christopher Catalano GS, a fourth year graduate student in the Molecular Biology department and vice president of the GSG, explained some of the challenges that students on the University’s health plan faced when scheduling dental appointments.

“It usually took three to four months to get a dentist appointment, because there was such a limited number of dentists who took [the student health plan],” Catalano told the ‘Prince’ in an interview. “The dentists also tended to be far away, so there were none in the immediate area that took our plan. So a lot of students just never had a dental appointment because it was too hard to get one.”

The email from the Student Health Plan office contained 40 appointment slots for students, which almost instantly filled.

“There was extremely high demand … the slots filled up within five minutes, and the system crashed because so many people were trying to get appointments,” said Catalano.

Responding to the demand for these services, Finnie wrote to the ‘Prince,’ “We were delighted that so many students were interested. We have already contacted the vendor to identify more dates and will communicate with eligible students with additional dates.”

Kosai added, “Now that we have a good sense of just how high the demand is, we are definitely ready to do what we can to make sure that all of those interested in getting dental cleanings on site have the ability to do so.”

Caitlyn Tablada is a Staff news writer from New York City who typically covers student life and academics.