New Delta Dental building at UTHSC in Memphis marks an expansion of services | Opinion
When we cut the ribbon (in this case the floss) on the new Delta Dental of Tennessee Building at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis on April 14, we will be ushering in a new day for the oral health of the people of Tennessee.
More than a fresh and shiny location for Tennessee’s future dentists to study and train, the building allows the UTHSC College of Dentistry to expand its incoming classes and produce more dentists and dental hygienists for Tennessee. It also increases the college’s clinic space, where faculty care for patients, including those who are uninsured or underinsured or have special needs, and student and resident dentists observe and develop skills.
Even more than that, the building is part of an ambitious collaborative effort by UTHSC, Delta Dental, the state of Tennessee, and many other partners to improve access to dental care across the state, particularly in rural areas where the need is great.
What are the stats on access to dentists?
Here is what the numbers tell us about the state of oral health in Tennessee.
U.S. News & World Report ranks Tennessee 43rd in access to dentists for its citizens and 46th in adult dental visits.
86 counties are below the recommendation by the Health Policy Institute of the American Dental Association of 61 dentists per 100,000 residents.
26 counties have less than 20 dentists per 100,000 people.
Tennessee will be 800-plus dentists short as the older ranks of licensed dentists retire over the next 10 years, according to American Dental Association estimates.
These alarming statistics are why Delta Dental donated $6.3 million toward construction of the new building that bears its name and why the state so generously funded the bulk of this $45 million improvement for its only statewide public academic health science institution.
One of the oldest public colleges of dentistry in the country, the UTHSC College of Dentistry trains 75% of the dentists in Tennessee.
However, beyond educating and training the dental workforce for Tennessee, the UTHSC College of Dentistry has set its sights on improving oral health from one end of the state to the other, and thereby improving overall health for the people who call Tennessee home.
Our efforts will expand citizens' access to dental care statewide
We are proud to say that the UTHSC College of Dentistry, in collaboration with the Tennessee Department of Health and many outstanding partners, is undertaking a $53 million project over the next five years to increase access to dentists and dental care across Tennessee.
One of UTHSC’s largest statewide efforts to date, this Healthy Smiles Initiative, funded by the state, is a multipronged approach to tackling the shortage of dentists in Tennessee by increasing the size of dental and dental hygiene classes and establishing dental student rotations at clinics in areas of greatest need, including in Crossville, Knoxville, Kingsport, Jackson, and Pulaski. Based on the successful model of established UTHSC dental clinics in Union City, Chattanooga, and Bristol, the clinics are supervised by faculty and staffed by fourth-year dental students and second-year dental hygiene students on two-week rotations.
There, they provide dental services to the uninsured and underinsured and gain invaluable clinical experience.
In Kingsport, the college is working with many corporate, community, academic and government partners on a collaborative dental clinic that will support student rotations there. The Kingsport Dental Clinic of the Appalachian Highlands will also be the site of a residency program offering postgraduate dental residency training in that region. The space will allow for clinical rotations for ETSU dental hygiene students, a major step toward a more robust and collaborative academic and clinical presence for UTHSC in East Tennessee. Additionally, new residency sites are being established in Knoxville and Jackson.
At the same time, the college is actively recruiting potential dental and dental hygiene students from many of those underserved rural counties in the hopes that they will want to return home after their dental training.
The Delta Dental of Tennessee Building at UTHSC is a brick-and-mortar symbol of the powerful and vital public and private partnerships that are working to improve the health of Tennessee, so that all who live in this great state can thrive.
Peter Buckley, M.D., is the chancellor of the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Phil Wenk, D.D.S., is the CEO of Delta Dental of Tennessee, the chair of the UTHSC Advisory Board, and an alumnus of the UTHSC College of Dentistry.
This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: New Delta Dental building at UTHSC marks an expansion of services
