SPOKANE – Eastern Washington University (EWU) has announced a $1 million grant from Delta Dental of Washington in support of the university’s dental hygiene program on the Spokane Health Peninsula campus, which will accommodate its dental education program – including a new master’s degree in dental therapy and a 46-chair dental clinic devoted to serving Spokane’s medically underserved.
The grant announcement, as well as plans for EWU’s new dental health education hub, comes as the demand for dental health professionals is at an all-time high – often contributing to longer patient waits for preventive dental health services.
For years, the state has experienced a critical workforce shortage of dental hygienists and dental assistants. The situation is even more dire among historically marginalized racial and ethnic groups, in rural areas, and in other medically underserved communities…