Dr. Nina Ray

Assistant Program Director, Texas A&M School of Dentistry

Dr. Nina Ray is dedicated to treating patients with special health care needs and pediatric patients from low-income or Medicaid-eligible families. Based in the Dallas-Fort Worth area, Dr. Ray is one of just 6 dentists specializing in treating patients with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities (IDD) in the region. For Dr. Ray, every patient deserves equitable care, and to be treated with dignity and respect.

Currently, Dr. Ray serves as the assistant program director for Texas A&M University’s dentistry fellowship focused on the IDD population for patients of any age. There are only 9 such programs across the nation designed specifically to train new dentists in postgraduate services to help patients with special health care needs. According to Dr. Ray, this is largely because dentists don’t traditionally get enough exposure treating patients with special needs during training, and that lack of exposure means few providers graduate feeling comfortable providing care to this high-need population. This fellowship program offers the necessary clinical exposure and helps dental fellows better meet the needs of these patients, such as how to engage with other specialists to take a patient’s entire health profile into consideration during treatment evaluation and planning. Increased and normalized dental and medical integration is essential in oral health care.

Oral care to Dr. Ray is a universal right to complete quality of life.

To me, access to care means having access to quality medical or dental services regardless of your socioeconomic status, where you are in your life, with special health care needs or not. There is a demographic of patients out there that are just as in need as the healthy patients. We are doing our best to meet this need. I want to hopefully inspire people to try and pursue this area – any small part that you can do will make a big difference in the long term.

– Dr. Nina Ray

More stats about the Texas A&M Foundation

Texas A&M’s program treats roughly 12,000 patients per year.
The program consists of 20 individuals: 11 faculty members, 4 fellows and 5 support staff members.