Launch of Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise

At the end of last year Plymouth University became the first university in the world to be awarded the Social Enterprise Mark in recognition of its long-standing support for the sector. The university has achieved another world first as the first education provider to incorporate a clinical entity into a social enterprise. The new social enterprise – Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise – brings Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry’s successful Dental Education Facilities and all its community activity under one umbrella. Dental Education Facilities are an innovation in dental education and have made a real impact on oral health improvement in the South West. The four facilities – two in Plymouth and one each in Exeter and Truro – were created to give dental students experience of treating NHS patients under the supervision of qualified dentists. The concept has been so successful that more than 10,000 people in Devon and Cornwall now have access to NHS dental care where they may not have done so before. The Plymouth University Peninsula Schools of Medicine and Dentistry Dental Community Development Team also comes under the auspices of the new Peninsula Dental Social Enterprise.