The 39-foot custom-made van with four fully-equipped dental exam rooms will begin circulating throughout the county next summer, stopping for 4-6 weeks at targeted preschools, Head Start Programs and locations recommended by "Success By 6." The rotation schedule will allow children to be seen twice a year, providing continuity of care.

Louis J. Goldberg, dean of the UB dental school, said the school appreciates greatly the Gebbie Foundation's generosity and reaffirmed the dental school's commitment to public service. "This project will have a significant impact on the birth-to-6-year population, and will further the dental school's commitment to disease prevention," he said.

The mobile clinic will be staffed by UB dental school faculty, UB hygienists and dental assistants, and UB dental students who will intern on the van. "Success by Six" participants and children from preschool age through third grade will be eligible for dental care through the mobile clinic. The UB dental school expects to serve 3,000 Medicaid-eligible children the first year, increasing to a maximum of 5,000 by the third year of operation.

In addition, clinic staff will offer a prenatal nutrition and dental-education program to pregnant women, coordinated by Paul Creighton, UB clinical assistant professor of pediatric dentistry.

Beverly Spencer, assistant dean for community affairs in the UB dental school, said Chautauqua County was chosen as the locale for the rural mobile dental clinic because of the strong need.

The mobile clinic and future UB dental-school rural initiatives will be monitored by an advisory board made up of community and UB representatives. Joseph Bernat, associate dean and chair of pediatric dentistry at the UB dental school, chairs the board, with Sebastian Ciancio, UB chair of periodontology, serving as vice chair. The other members are Dianne Eisenhart, director of the Gebbie Foundation's "Success by 6" initiative and Chautauqua County dentists Francis Palmer, Vincent Nalbone, Peter Masone, Robert Siegel and Mark Twichell.