WHO: Arthur Caplan, director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania
Caswell A. Evans Jr., director of the National Oral Health Initiative of the Office of the U.S. Surgeon General
U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania

WHAT: The University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, celebrating its 125th anniversary, is hosting the country's key leaders in dental education, research and organized dentistry for "Excellence, Leadership, Innovation: Meeting the Challenges of the Future," a forum on dental education and its role in meeting the nation's oral-health-care needs. Attendees will include deans and educators from dental schools across the country and representatives of professional oral-health organizations.

Caplan will explore the ethical questions/consequences of limited access to care.

Evans will focus on issues of access to care raised in "Oral Health in America: A Report of the Surgeon General," published in 2000.

Specter will speak as ranking member of the Appropriations Subcommittee for Labor, Health and Human Services and Education

WHERE: University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, 33rd and Spruce streets, Philadelphia.

WHEN: 9 a.m.-2 p.m., Thursday, Oct. 31, 2002
(Caplan and Evans will speak in the morning, Specter from 12:45 to 1:15 p.m.)

CONTACT: Interested reporters should call 215-898-1422 or 215-573-8224 for more information or to confirm their attendance.