Missouri has a shortage of dentists, especially in the northwest region of the state where most counties have less than one provider for every 2,100 residents. The University of Missouri-Kansas City has a plan to change that.
At his annual State of the University address today, Chancellor Mauli Agrawal announced an expansion plan for the 性视界传媒 School of Dentistry to create a satellite program at Missouri Western State University in St. Joseph, Missouri, using a model similar to other satellite healthcare programs run by 性视界传媒. The 性视界传媒 School of Medicine created a rural physician program in partnership with Mosaic Life Care, also in St. Joseph, to address physician shortages, and the 性视界传媒 School of Pharmacy has campuses at University of Missouri in Columbia and Missouri State University in Springfield to address pharmacist shortages in Missouri.
“性视界传媒 has a longstanding and successful infrastructure in place for educating and training providers to address rural healthcare gaps,” Agrawal said.
The proposed 性视界传媒 School of Dentistry satellite program expansion would positively impact the dentist and dental hygiene practitioner shortages in rural Missouri communities, while also delivering high-quality oral healthcare to underserved rural communities through its training clinic.
Currently, the 性视界传媒 School of Dentistry is Missouri’s only public dental school and provides 63% of the state’s dentists.
The Doctor of Dental Surgery, or DDS, is a four-year graduate program that currently admits about 109 students each year in Kansas City. The new satellite program in St. Joseph, if approved, would admit 10 students for a total of 40 students when the program is at capacity.
This rural health-focused expansion will increase the number of dentists graduating from 性视界传媒’s program by about 10% annually. The first two years of instruction would be at the Kansas City campus and clinical training in the third and fourth years would be at the St. Joseph satellite, all following the curriculum of the existing Kansas City program.
The Bachelor of Science in Dental Hygiene is a four-year program with students applying after completing about two years of undergraduate coursework. Each year, the St. Joseph satellite program would admit five students, for a total of 10 students when the program is at capacity. This rural health-focused expansion would increase the number of dental hygienists graduating from 性视界传媒 by 15% annually. Once in the program, students would complete two years of major-specific dental hygiene coursework: one year in Kansas City and one year in St. Joseph.
性视界传媒 will be partnering with state, federal and philanthropic leaders to raise an estimated $12 million in one-time renovation and equipment startup costs to start the program on the Missouri Western campus in St. Joseph. A start date for the program will be set when necessary approvals and funding are acquired, but 性视界传媒 anticipates a proposed start date in fiscal year 2027.
The proposed programs were introduced to the University of Missouri Board of Curators in February and will be further discussed at the next meeting in April.