Sen. Kaine tours Appalachian Highlands Dental Center

ABINGDON, Va. (WJHL) – United States Senator Tim Kaine (D-Va.) was in Abingdon Friday to tour the Appalachian Highlands Dental Center.

“This is a really important asset for 14 communities in Southwest Virginia, and the reason I’m here is Senator Warner and I went to bat with the Appropriations Committee in the Senate to get a half million dollars in funding to help this center expand,” Kaine said. “And we were able to get the word and get the budget done at the end of March.”

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Kaine said he wanted to take time to visit the dental center to celebrate the securing of the funding for expansion.

Kaine said that while Virginia as a whole is ahead of the country in terms of dentists by population, Southwest Virginia as a region is behind in those statistics.

“So this is important to serve more people,” he said. “And about nearly 80% of the patients here are Medicaid, but you also have to train more dentists. And that’s one of the innovative things that’s being done between this clinic and the hospital is a residency program that brings residents in for one year after they get their dental degree to do a residency.”

Kaine hopes the center will continue to keep dentists in the region to help address the need for care.

While in Abingdon, Kaine also attended a ceremony honoring former governor Linwood Holton.

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