BOCA: Buffalo Outreach and Community Assistance

BOCA's Accomplishments
As members of BOCA, we are proud of our accomplishments. We have currently led over 15 dental mission trips both abroad and in various communities across the United States. More than 100 Buffalo dental students have participated in the program, joining over 25 different faculty members and residents. On our missions, we strive to provide the dental care most needed by a particular community. Primarily, this includes surgical extractions and restorative dental work, as well as hygiene, sealants and dental education.

BOCA by the numbers
Being typical dental students, we can't ignore the statistical impact of our dental work! Our current tallies indicate that we have seen 4611 patients on outreach trips since 2003. We have performed over 2557 dental restorations and extracted over 4076 teeth! For those in private practice, this is the equivalent of over $1,014,940 in free dental work. Considering that most of our patients live in huts without heat or electricity and have no previous dental care, this is a pretty remarkable gift.
While the most important beneficiaries of our dental work are the patients, the dental students who attend these missions are also rewarded. They not only gain insight into lives that are often less privileged than their own, but have the opportunity to do extraordinary amounts of dental work. Depending on the trip, the average student performs between 30-60 extractions and up to 25 restorations in a week! A relatively busy five days in comparison to Squire Hall.