Patrick Smith, DMD, MPH, is Assistant Professor and Director for Diversity, Equity, Inclusion and Belonging at the UIC College of Dentistry. His research uses community-based participatory methods to improve Black men’s engagement in oral health prevention and promotion. He is the recipient of a Research Scholar Grant from the Illinois Cancer Health Equity Research (I-CHER) Center at the University of Illinois Cancer Center for a project focused on an engagement tool that will help dental providers initiate discussions with Black men about oral cancers and pharyngeal cancers. Black men are at the highest risk of dying from oral cancer compared with other men, and there is growing evidence that poor oral health increases the risk of oral cancer. Oral cancer in Chicago is a racial health disparity issue because there are south and west communities with higher rates of incidence than other communities.
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