‘The stars literally lined up.’ UTHSC opens new $45 million dental college facility

This story has been updated to correct the name of the Delta Dental of Tennessee Building at the UT Health Science Center.

The University of Tennessee Health Science Center in Memphis has a new, $45 million dental college facility, a state-of-the-art expansion that brings in new technology and will allow the school to recruit and retain the nation’s best faculty and students, the college said.

The university held a “floss-cutting” Friday afternoon to celebrate the facility’s completion.

The Delta Dental of Tennessee Building at the UT Health Science Center will not only incorporate the newest training technology and modern facilities but create space to bring the whole college together, said James C. Ragain, dean of the UTHSC College of Dentistry. Currently, due to space constraints, first- and second-year students typically learn, study and relax in separate spaces from upper-level students.

When it comes to the building itself, natural light is a focus of the new space, with walls of windows (with remote control shade and blackout curtains) lining clinical spaces, study areas, offices, waiting rooms and a lecture hall in the 68,000-square-foot facility at 875 Union Ave.

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A new facility also allows for faculty who have been sharing offices to move into their own spaces and gives the school room to grow. Ragain said UTHSC is expanding from an 80-student class size to 130. That means hiring more faculty. State funding has given the college the ability to raise current faculty salaries and hire new faculty, too.

“All of this really came together in a miraculous way, and all the stars literally lined up,” Ragain said. “From the governor, President (Randy) Boyd, the chancellor… everybody's on the same sheet of music.”

Everything is brand new and state-of-the-art with a focus on new technology and digital techniques, the future of dentistry, Ragain said. Classes in the new facility will begin this fall semester, which starts in July, UTHSC said.

The new building ― connected to the currently in use Dunn building, which will see renovations over the coming years ― comes amid a broader Healthy Smiles project, a statewide, $94 million effort to increase the number of dentists and decrease dental deserts in Tennessee.

‘It’s just exciting'

Ragain said at some point all students will also work at the special needs dental clinic within the new building, a clinic unique to the region. The area was specially designed with expert input to enhance comfort and accessibility for patients who use wheelchairs or have sensory sensitivity to colors, texture and lighting.

That area connects to an area where faculty practitioners will see patients, which has a separate waiting room. Lab areas are nearby for practitioners’ day-to-day needs.

The next floor features study areas, grading lockers (which allow students to submit work anonymously, so the professors grade without any bias) and a locker room. Currently, student locker space is on another part of the campus across Union Avenue from the Dunn building where dental instruction has been.

That floor also includes two skills labs with 134 mannequin stations where dental and dental hygienist students can practice on plastic patients. However, the brand-new equipment they’ll train on in the labs ― also outfitted with teaching stations ― is exactly the same as the equipment in use in the clinical areas.

“It may sound like ‘what's the big deal?’ But really, it is,” Ragain said. “If you don't have to worry about how to turn the light on… if that's almost automatic to you, now you just concentrate on that patient.”

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The next floor up features a lecture hall that can stream presentations or demonstrations from the downstairs mannequin stations or from around the world as well as more student study spaces. It also features an interior courtyard that doubles as a way to provide some fresh air for students and faculty and create windows to bring natural light into upper-floor offices not along external walls.

Faculty offices on that floor all have either exterior views, looking across Union to the main UTHSC campus, or views of the courtyard. Ragain said the expanded office offerings for faculty is an asset, as many are now sharing offices in the Dunn building, sometimes up to six people to one office.

“I do think that morale has really… this year has improved a lot,” he said. “Having this new building and now people are wandering in and seeing it… it's just exciting.”

The fourth floor features the deans’ offices, a board room and an adjoining rooftop patio space that looks east.

"This building is the embodiment of the generous philanthropy of our supporters at Delta Dental of Tennessee and its leader, Phil Wenk, one of our most dedicated alumni members and just a tremendous friend of the college and our university,” Chancellor Peter Buckley said. “We are grateful also for the support from the state and other donors who have funded this building, which is so vital to the health of all Tennesseans.”

Corinne S Kennedy covers economic development, healthcare and real estate for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached via email at Corinne.Kennedy@CommercialAppeal.com

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: UTHSC College of Dentistry opens $45 million facility in Memphis