Panhandle Community Services in Gering/Scottsbluff awarded grant that enables UNMC College of Dentistry’s dental hygiene program to expand to western Nebraska

The Panhandle Community Services of Gering has received a three-year,

$221,690 grant from the  Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services

System Nebraska Healthcare Cash Fund (tobacco settlement fund) which has

allowed the University of Nebraska Medical Center to expand its dental

hygiene program in western Nebraska.

PCS, located in Gering, has subcontracted with the University of Nebraska

Medical Center College of Dentistry, which is located in Lincoln, to make

its dental hygiene program accessible in Western Nebraska. The first students

began classes in August.

The UNMC College of Dentistrys dental hygiene program is a two-year

program upon which students earn a bachelors degree in dental hygiene.

Students enter the dental hygiene program with two years of undergraduate

prerequisite courses.

Dental hygienists are licensed oral health professionals whose focus

is preventing and treating oral diseases. Dental hygienists perform oral

health care assessments, expose, process, and interpret dental X-rays,

remove plaque and tartar, apply cavity-preventive agents such as fluorides

and sealants and teach proper oral hygiene.

Dental hygiene students will attend class at PCS and use distance learning

technology to access Lincoln classes. They will share student services

with nursing students at the UNMC College of Nursing West Nebraska Division

in Scottsbluff. Dental hygiene students will perform clinical skills in

the dental facilities at PCS.

Were very excited about the partnership with the College of Dentistry

for a variety of reasons, said Margo Hartman, deputy director of PCS.

Over the past year we have updated our needs assessment.  During

that process people indicated that access to dental care was a need throughout

the panhandle. Its an opportunity for those who want to become dental

hygienists to live here and not have to move to Lincoln to go to school

to become a dental hygienist.

PCS recently has expanded its facilities and plans to have four dental

patient care rooms where students will learn clinical hygiene skills with

patients at PCS.

We see this opportunity as positive economic development. And after

graduation, students can find good paying jobs with which they can support

themselves and their families, Hartman said. We serve children and adults

in our community and surrounding areas whom may not get dental care otherwise.

The addition of students in our facility will enable us to help more children

and adults, as well as free dentists to do more dental care.

George Schlothauer, D.D.S., an area private practice dentist who serves

on the PCS Health Committee, is looking forward to the partnership. There

are nothing but pluses for the establishment of the hygiene program here

in Gering. Being in western Nebraska so far from the college is especially

hard to get young trained dental hygienists to return. Quite often they

get married and then it is very difficult for both to find employment in

a rural setting.

Our hope is that if we train the students here, they more than likely

will elect to stay either here or locate nearby. As individuals like me

get closer to retiring, there will be a great demand for both dentists

and hygienists, Dr. Schlothauer said. We are very fortunate to have the

facility that we have at PCS and an abundance of patients that need hygiene

services. I am very excited about the program and I think it will be a

program that we can all be proud of.

John Reinhardt, D.D.S., dean of the UNMC College of Dentistry, said

the college has tried for a decade to increase the pool of students in

the western part of the state. There is a big shortage of dental hygienists

in western Nebraska, from Grand Island west, he said. We are taking the

program to the students in hopes we can encourage them to graduate and

practice in the shortage areas. Weve been hoping for this program for

more than a decade. But we didnt get it funded until now. We were just

waiting for the opportunity.

The college has hired a faculty member, Todd Junge, a graduate of the

UNMC dental hygiene program, said Gwen Hlava, chair of the Department of

Dental Hygiene, UNMC College of Dentistry.

David Brown, Ph.D., executive associate dean, UNMC College of Dentistry

and professor of oral biology, said students who enroll will learn the

same academics and clinical program as their colleagues. The only difference

will be in the classroom where students will see and communicate with faculty

and fellow students in Lincoln in real time, live via satellite or internet

communications.

This is simply an extension of our program, Dr. Brown said. Its

exactly the same program  except that the students will be in the

Scottsbluff/Gering area. All of the academic instruction will come from

Lincoln. The intent is to draw students from western Nebraska who are interested

in building a dental hygiene practice in their home area.

Dr. Brown said he expects to see traditional as well as non-traditional

students who are changing careers. The more hygienists we can have in

underserved areas, the better, he said. In Nebraska, we have a problem

of access to oral health care. There really is a health care crisis in

dentistry in the western part of the state.

Drs. Reinhardt and Brown credit PCS with making this program possible

in the local area.

PCS is a non-profit community-based organization that serves low-income

and disadvantaged people, and those unable to meet their needs through

other sources.

The mission of the UNMC College of Dentistry is to educate dental health

professionals and to improve the health of the citizens of Nebraska through

excellence in research, patient care and outreach. The college serves Nebraska

students and those in states that have no dental schools, including Kansas,

South Dakota and Wyoming. For six of the last nine years, the colleges

freshman class has ranked first among the 55 U.S. dental schools for incoming

grade-point average. The college offers programs in doctor of dental surgery

(D.D.S.), bachelors degree in dental hygiene, a general practice residency

program and post-graduate specialty programs in endodontics, orthodontics,

periodontics, and pediatric dentistry.

UNMC is the only public health science center in the state. Its educational

programs are responsible for training more health professionals practicing

in Nebraska than any other institution. Through its commitment to education, 

research, patient care and outreach, UNMC has established itself as one

of the country’s leading centers in cancer, transplantation biology, bioterrorism

preparedness, neurodegenerative diseases, cardiovascular diseases, genetics,

biomedical technology and arthritis. In the past year, UNMCs research

funding from external sources increased by 23 percent and now exceeds $50

million annually. In that same period, federal funding increased by 36

percent and now exceeds $34 million.

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