EUGENE, Ore. — Lane Community College has received a one-year, $100,000 grant from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation to conduct a feasibility study for establishing an accredited Dental Therapist two-year degree program.
“This is an emerging field,” says Sharon Hagan, Lane’s Dental Hygiene program coordinator who will lead the grant efforts. “Dental therapists have become necessary because of a scarcity of dentists in rural areas,” Hagan says.
Dental therapists perform basic clinical treatment and preventative services under the general and indirect supervision of dentists. This includes restorative dental treatment, disease prevention and oral health promotion and procedures such as exposing radiographs/X-rays, administering local anesthetic and nitrous oxide, applying topical prophylactic agents, preparations and restorations of primary and permanent teeth, repair of defective prosthetic devices, and recementing permanent crowns.
A major effort of the grant will be outreach to Hispanic and Native American communities to familiarize them with dental therapy as a potential employment option and to help identify potential student recruits.
As part of the feasibility study, project staff will survey dental care providers to identify the level of support for a dental therapist education program in Oregon. Employers, government officials, and regulatory and licensing entities will be advised and surveyed about graduate employment opportunities, community needs and how they see this profession can meet the needs of their communities.
The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer, Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States. Guided by the belief that all children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential in school, work and life.
The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Michigan, and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes. Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally, are in Mexico and Haiti. For more information, visit www.wkkf.org
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Lane is an AA/EEO/Veterans/Disabilities Employer
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