Dental students, working as volunteers, attend to patients at a Remote Area Medical (RAM) mobile dental and medical clinic on Oct. 07, 2023, in Grundy, Virginia. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
This story is the first in a three-part series about new higher education institutions in Arkansas that are welcoming their first class of students or breaking ground on their schools in 2025. The governor has said higher education will be a focus of the upcoming legislative session that begins Jan. 13.
The head of the state’s first dental school is hopeful the institution will spark generational improvement in Arkansans’ oral health and increase access to care once it opens this summer.
Dr. Burke Soffe, founding dean of the Lyon College School of Dental Medicine, said there’s a huge need for providers and a better distribution of them given the rural nature of the state. Arkansas had 41.24 dentists per 100,000 people in 2023, the least of any state, according to a report from the American Dental Association.