The Aspen Group Steps Up for Those in Need
At the new TAG Oral Care Center for Excellence, doctors, specialists, and dental care teams across the TAG network will provide underserved patients with high-quality care, including routine and advanced procedures
TAG – The Aspen Group has a long history of breaking down barriers to healthcare in communities around the world. For example, the doctors at independently owned Aspen Dental offices across the country, along with their teams, have donated over $23 million in dental care to more than 30,000 veterans and others in need through both the Annual Day of Service in the U.S. and Overseas Outreach trips in underserved countries, where dental care is not readily available.
“As an organization, we believe wholeheartedly that it’s not just our responsibility to give back in meaningful ways, but it’s part of the joy we take in our jobs. It’s in our DNA,” said Sundeep Rawal, DMD, Senior Vice President, Implant Support Services.
TAG – The Aspen Group, the healthcare service platform that supports Aspen Dental practice owners and teams, is taking this mission to a new level with the opening of the TAG Oral Care Center for Excellence in Chicago. The 25,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art clinical facility is designed to provide comprehensive dental care at no cost to an estimated 2,500 underserved Illinois residents per year. Dentists and support staff will provide ongoing care with a focus on returning patients to health. Services will range from crowns and bridges to implants and dentures.
“We will be layering in the most innovative technologies that we have in dentistry today—from intraoral scanning, to CBCT for diagnosis and treatment planning, to 3D printing,” said Dr. Rawal. “And as the industry progresses we’ll be able to adopt and integrate new technologies so that we can continue to deliver care in the highest possible manner.”
Serving the Underserved
Julie Frantsve-Hawley, PhD, CAE, who trained at Harvard University and has more than 20 years of extensive experience in public health dentistry and research, is serving as executive director of the TAG Oral Care Center. The team is partnering with a variety of state and community organizations to fill gaps where residents of Illinois have been unable to access dental care. Those in need span a wide range of communities, including veterans, people with disabilities or medical conditions, and the homeless population.
“We want to give them a state of oral health that’s really functional, so that they’re able to smile again and they’re able to eat again,” said Dr. Frantsve-Hawley. “And that impacts a lot of things. It impacts nutrition, because you need to have good oral health to be able to eat properly. It impacts self-esteem—we’ve seen that people who have a good dentition and are able to smile are better able to get jobs. It also impacts overall health, because of the association between oral health and many different adverse systemic conditions. So, we think there will be a lot of positive benefits not just for the patients, but for the economy and healthcare locally and across the state.”
Training and Support
Under Dr. Frantsve-Hawley's leadership, and in conjunction with a clinical faculty of dentists and dental specialists, the TAG Oral Care Center will educate hundreds of licensed dentists— from independently owned Aspen Dental and ClearChoice Dental Implant practices across the U.S.—in advanced dental technologies and clinical procedures. The facility will provide new opportunities for doctors and teams to advance their skills and grow their careers.
“We have a strong commitment, as the preeminent support organization in dentistry, to provide lifelong learning and development for our doctors and teams, so that they are able to effectively grow professionally to whatever heights they want—and in whatever fashion and whatever modalities they want to endeavor in—without ever having to leave the Aspen ecosystem,” Dr. Rawal said.
Arwinder Judge, DDS, Chief Clinical Officer for Aspen Dental, noted that the facility builds on Aspen’s legacy of donating comprehensive dental care to patients and communities across the country and around the world over the past decade. “Providing better care to more people has been our mission from the start, and the TAG Oral Care Center for Excellence brings that mission to life in a meaningful way, in the heart of Chicago,” he said.
