Student-Run Free Dental Clinic Flourishes Under Leadership of Irvin Silverstein

Under Dr. Irvin Silverstein’s vision and leadership, the UCSD Student-Run Free Dental Clinic Project has grown to four sites and provides dental care for families without health care in Lemon Grove, veterans served at Veteran’s Village off Pacific Highway and underserved individuals in Pacific Beach and Downtown locations. Project has grown to four sites and provides dental care for families without.

Since 2006, Silverstein has assisted the U.S. Navy in humanitarian efforts. He has coordinated more than 18 missions with dentists, physicians, pharmacists, nurses and other health professionals, as well as engineers and students aboard Navy ships to deliver care to more than 20 underserved countries around the world.

Silverstein has been instrumental in developing training sessions and an educational program for thousands of students that involved noted speakers from academia, dentistry and politics. Over 1250 of his former students are now either in professional school or have graduated.

Silverstein works with numerous organizations, such as the Rotary’s Thousand Smiles and Norcal projects, Bright Island Outreach and Caribbean Health Outreach, which afford pre-dental and dental students, as well as health care professionals, opportunities to be involved with humanitarian assistance.

He is a charter and board member of the Alliance for Oral Health Across Borders, an organization trying to achieve peace through oral health care and education.