Oral health services are predominantly urban oriented. To over come this issue and make all specialtity services available to the rural population, the Department of Community dentistry has a holistic approach wherein the department trains the students to address problems related to rural population. It strives to make the students complete oral physicians who can address problems from its root cause and believe in eradicating it completely. The department trains the students to motivate people around using street plays and health talks to address problems like personal hygiene, water conservation, air pollution etc.
Since the inception of the department in 1988, 1,084 health programmes (treatment and check up camps) have been organized and 2, 82,034 patients have been attended to. These health programmes comprise of diagnosis, restorative treatment, exodontias, oral prophylaxis, oral health awareness, general health awareness etc.

There are 13 satellite centres functioning at present, started since 1991. with our institution as the nucleus, tehse satellite centres are in the radius of 320 kms, which includes districts of Kodagu, chickmagalur, Udupi, Uttar Kannada and North Kerala.
These health centres cater to the oral health needs of the people in the radius of 50 to 100 kms around it. Till date 5, 24,811 patients have been treated. These centres provide the complete spectrum of treatment from diagnosis to complete rehabilitation with speciality treatment provided free of cost.