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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Rural dentist education to grow in Spokane under Legislature funding and new space

Education to train dentists mainly for rural work is expanding this summer in Spokane in facility size and student numbers.

The University of Washington School of Dentistry will lease space for a new oral health training center in the UW-Gonzaga University Health Partnership’s building, 840 E. Spokane Falls Blvd., to grow its Regional Initiatives in Dental Education program.

Started in 2008, the program is a partnership of the UW dentistry school and Eastern Washington University to prepare future dentists to work in rural and underserved areas of the state where there are shortages.

This spring, it received $2.5 million from the Legislature along with federal grants to expand the four-year program, doubling the number of students per year from eight to 16 – or 64 students once all cohorts are filled – and creating space for a second year in Spokane.

“Now that we have this expansion, it is going to allow us to do two years in Spokane, the entire period of what we call the pre-clinical part of the program,” said Frank Roberts, a dentist and UW School of Dentistry associate dean. He’s also a Seattle-based director in the RIDE program.

Spokane is key for another reason, he said, because students in the summer between their first and second year train at rural clinics or federally funded health sites statewide, many near Eastern Washington. Some are in Colville, Yakima, Clarkston, Moses Lake and Chewelah. Unify Community Health in Spokane is included, he said.

The dental educational space of about 13,000 square feet is expected to be ready this summer with a dental simulation lab, digital dentistry lab, classrooms and offices on the fourth floor. The building, with 90,000 square feet, opened in fall 2022 and houses other health sciences programs, including medical students in the UW School of Medicine-Gonzaga University Health Partnership.

The universities lease space from the Emerald Initiative, an affiliate of engineering and construction company McKinstry. Previously, the regional dentistry students studied in Spokane for one year, using three locations in the University District, Roberts said.

The students, while in Spokane, take basic science classes coordinated with the medical school, he said. They go to Seattle by their third year to do specialty training such as in orthodontics, periodontics and oral surgery. Graduates obtain a doctor of dental surgery degree.

Roberts said the new site also will allow for research, such as around new digital technologies and new biocompatible materials used for fillings.

Mary Smith, a Spokane dentist and RIDE regional clinical director, said the incoming class will have 16 students instead of eight, and training will last longer here.

“That is something students have really requested of the program, to stay in Spokane a second year; they like it here,” Smith said. “Most of our students are from more rural areas, and they like attending school in Spokane. The premise is, if you educate them in rural or underserved areas, they’re more likely to stay, and 80% of our students have returned. Those include general dentists and specialists.”