Kingsport Dental Clinic to ‘cut floss’ for grand opening in July
KINGSPORT, Tenn. (WJHL) — The Kingsport Dental Clinic of the Appalachian Highlands will “cut the floss” for its grand opening in July, right on track with the project’s proposed timeline.
The clinic will serve a dual purpose as a training facility for students from the University of Tennessee Health Sciences Center College of Dentistry and East Tennessee State University, and as an affordable dental care provider.
UTHSC officials estimate that the state is short 8,000 to 10,000 dentists, a problem College of Dentistry Dean James Ragain hopes the clinic will alleviate.
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“It certainly helps us when it comes to training sites, but it also helps the citizens of Tennessee because now we can put providers out in places where there are not that many providers,” Ragain told News Channel 11.
Ragain said the project, a partnership between the City of Kingsport, two universities and private groups like Delta Dental, will add the equivalent of five dentists to the region.
That’s deeply needed, particularly in Northeast Tennessee.
“In that particular area in the county surrounding Kingsport, we have about half the number of dentists that would be the recommended number to treat the population,” Ragain said.
Ragain said that need, along with the passionate collaboration of local partners, attracted him to Kingsport for the project.
“We want the citizens of the Appalachian Highlands to feel like they have a dental home, and we want it to be a nice dental home,” Ragain said.
When it opens, students from UT and ETSU will visit for two-week clinical rotations, but the plan is to launch a one-year residency program once the clinic opens.
That goal is much closer to a reality thanks to a $6.5 million allocation for the project in this year’s state budget, said Kingsport City manager Chris McCartt.
“What that allows us to do is to secure the property, to move forward with additional renovations that will allow the clinic to expand much faster,” McCartt told News Channel 11.
The opening “floss cutting” is scheduled for July 24.
Ragain said the clinic director may begin seeing patients right away, but the first student rotations will start after Labor Day.
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