Profile
Dr. Theo Adeyemi, DDS, MPH
Public Health Dentist
Baltimore, Maryland
Works on the part of the access problem that has nothing to do with dentists.
- Public Health Dentistry
- Access to Care
- Community Programs
About
Theo Adeyemi’s work sits at the point where dentistry stops being a clinical question. He studies why people who have coverage, a nearby clinic, and a diagnosed problem still do not come in.
The answers he keeps finding are unglamorous: transportation, hourly work that does not permit a mid-day absence, a phone system that requires a callback during business hours, and prior experiences that taught patients the visit would go badly. None of them are fixed by adding chairs.
He teaches, advises two community health systems, and is patient with the fact that his findings are not the kind that get applauded at conferences. “Everyone wants the access problem to be a supply problem,” he says. “Supply problems are the ones you can buy your way out of.”
Areas of Expertise
- Public Health Dentistry
- Access to Care
- Community Programs
Featured Stories
Reporting that features Dr. Theo Adeyemi.
The Trust Problem: How Patients Actually Choose a Dentist
Patients cannot evaluate clinical quality, and they know it. What they evaluate instead is remarkably consistent, and almost none of it appears on a practice’s website.
Ten Questions That Will Shape Dentistry in 2027
Not predictions. The unresolved questions we expect to spend next year reporting on — and the reasons we think each one is genuinely open.
Dental Schools Are Quietly Redesigning the First Two Years
Several programs have begun moving clinical contact earlier and compressing the basic-science sequence. The change is less about pedagogy than about who is still willing to enroll.