Mary Northridge, assistant professor of epidemiology and health promotion at NYU’s College of Dentistry, was awarded a five-year, $3.7 million grant to continue her research on how the elderly in low-income, racial and ethnic communities in New York City access oral healthcare.

The National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research and the National Institutes of Health’s Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research awarded the grant to Northridge and her team after eight years of their extensive research and many applications.

Northridge’s research began in 2004 when she co-found the ElderSmile Program at the Columbia University of Dental Medicine. This program is aimed at giving Hispanic and African-American older adults in New York City access to dental care.

According to a press release from the NYU College of Dentistry, Northridge found that edentulism — the condition of lacking teeth — was diagnosed in 27.3 percent of adults 65 and over nationally, compared to 19.5 percent for adults 65 and over participating in the ElderSmile Program.

“Certain older adults living in poorer communities in New York City have remarkably good oral health compared to the U.S. national average, and we want to understand why,” Northridge said.

Northridge now plans to use social science methods, including focused group interviews and systems science modeling, to understand these figures and discover how these low-income communities overcome barriers to access care.

She hopes her research will help address some of the nation’s health care problems and benefit elderly Americans across the country.

“The aging of the population in the United States and around the world is placing enormous pressure on health care systems,” Northridge said. “Our hope is to intervene earlier in the disease process using community-based screening approaches for oral health problems.”

Louis Terracio, dean of the College of Dentistry, said the award presents an important contribution to the school.

“Dr. Northridge’s grant is perfectly aligned with the College of Dentistry’s curricular focus on preparing dental graduates who are competent to treat our nation’s aging population in a holistic way,” Terracio said. “We are very proud of our colleague, Mary Northridge, and of her entire team, and congratulate them on their success in obtaining this grant.”

Northridge added that her work is part of a greater effort to address problems within the American system of dental health care.

“For our parents and grandparents and eventually ourselves, we need to create holistic, humane systems of care,” Northridge said.

A version of this article appeared in the Tuesday, Oct. 23 print edition. Kevin Burns is a staff writer. Email him at [email protected].