YAKIMA, Wash. – Washington’s second dental school is set to be revealed at the Pacific Northwest University of Health Scientists at an open house on Sat., Sept. 28.
The Delta Dental Equity Hall will be the first dental school in the nation to offer training at community health centers serving rural and medically underserved communities.
The hall features 30,000 square feet of classroom and workspace for training new primary care dentists.
The goal of the new school is to give access to communities that are seeing a critical dental workforce shortage and being disproportionately impacted by oral health issues.
“Most dental disease is preventable, but you can’t prevent oral health issues if you don’t have access to care,” said PNWU School of Dental Medicine Founding Dean Fotinos Panagakos, DMD, PhD. “The groundswell of community support we’ve received for our new school of dental medicine will have a lasting impact on the oral health of rural and medically underserved communities, here in Washington and beyond, which for too long have had limited access to care.”
Funding for the new building came from Delta Dental of Washington which committed $12 million and $5 million from a combination of the Washington State Dental Association Foundation, Pierce County and other foundations and donors.
The open house and ribbon cutting ceremony takes place at 4 p.m. on Sat., Sept. 28.
