The location of a new Temple University dental school and clinic in downtown Tamaqua was formally committed to by university Trustees Wednesday, progressing plans to boost the accessibility of quality dental care in underserved rural communities in the region.
The Kornberg School of Dentistry’s 24-chair education center will be constructed at the site of the former Rite Aid, at 205 Center Street. Student housing facilities will be created at 24 W. Broad Street, the now vacant site of the former Tire Pros and Scheid’s Department Store. The two sites are less than a 10-minute walk from one another.
Housing for students at the Kornberg School of Dentistry will be constructed at 24 West Broad Street in Tamaqua. (JOHN HAEGER/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
The education center and clinic will be the clinical training site of 10 third-year and 10 fourth-year students at a time. The plan is for third-year students to begin their training in Tamaqua as early as this fall semester.
Project officials hope the school will help reverse a statewide shortage of dental professionals.
Helen Hawkey, executive director of the Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health, previously told the Republican Herald that for every 15 dentists there are in the Commonwealth’s urban areas, there is just one in rural areas.
The school will be the state’s first rural dental education center, Temple officials say.
A rendering of Temple University’s rural dental education center and clinic which is now under development in downtown Tamaqua. (WULFF ARCHITECTS)
State Senator Dave Argall (R-29) and state Representative Jamie Barton (R-124) praised the project’s progression and the new opportunities it will provide for both students and prospective patients.
“Many people have shared with me how difficult it is to make a dental appointment in our region,” Argall said in a press release. “Thanks to this commitment from Temple University and the hard work of many local leaders and volunteers, we can solve this problem right here in Tamaqua.”
According to the Board of Trustee’s meeting agenda, the university will lease the two locations for 15-year terms, cumulatively costing over $500,000 a year.
In November, the endeavor received a $2 million boost from federal funding, attained after the university and the Tamaqua Area Community Partnership collaboratively applied for it about two years ago.
According to project officials, many residents in Tamaqua struggle to find dentists with openings, leading them to have to travel outside the region or deal with waitlists to receive care.
Dr. Amid Ismail, dean of Temple’s Kornberg School of Dentistry, previously told the Republican Herald that the hope is that having students train in rural communities will increase the likelihood they will start their careers in similarly underserved communities, thus addressing a brain drain of talent and skill from these areas.
“It is a model that acknowledges rural Pennsylvania’s reality rather than papering over it with ineffective fixes,” Ismail said in November. “It will create jobs in a rural area. And, hopefully it will engender comfort for dental graduates to live in one of the most beautiful areas in the United States.”
When construction and renovations will start in Tamaqua has not yet been specified.