Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear has announced a new Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) and higher education partnership to enhance sustainable, collaborative dental health education and care in eastern Kentucky.
Morehead State University (MSU), the University of Pikeville (UPIKE), and the University of Kentucky (UK), through its College of Dentistry, will partner in the design of the Appalachian Rural Dental Educational Partnership Plan. The program's goal is to train more dentists to practice in rural areas and give them the tools necessary to set up thriving dental practices in eastern Kentucky.
The Appalachian Rural Dental Educational Partnership Plan is funded by a $400,000 ARC grant, as well as $127,293 from UK, $82,035 from UPIKE, and $47,873 from MSU.
The partnership's main goal is to design and implement a program to increase the number of practicing dentists in Appalachia through enhanced training, recruitment, and educational assistance. The participating universities will assess national dental education models with similar objectives before designing and developing dental programs and doctor of dental medicine degree options for eastern Kentucky.
The most recent Kentucky Dental Provider Workforce Analysis estimated there will be 2,064 practicing dentists in 2016, a loss of 286 dentists from the state total in 2006. This study also documented the uneven distribution of dentists -- with the lowest numbers of dentists per population in the rural eastern and western counties. In addition, a January 2010 relicensure data analysis found that of Kentucky's 2,348 practicing dentists, 40% were age 55 or older.
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