Dental Health Initiative in Appalachia

The Appalachian Regional Commission is joining with Kentucky’s higher education community, in hopes of improving dental health in eastern Kentucky.  In addition to the A-R-C, the partnership involves the University of Kentucky, the University of Pikeville, and Morehead State University.  The main goal is to increase the number of practicing dentists in Appalachia through better training, recruitment and educational assistance. The most recent analysis estimates there will be two thousand 64 practicing dentists by 2016, a loss of 286 dentists from the total in 2006.  The Appalachian Rural Dental Education Partnership Plan is funded by a 400 thousand Appalachian Regional Commission grant as well as just over 127 thousand dollars form Uk 82 thousand dollars from the University of Pikeville and almost 48 thousand dollars from Morehead State.