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New UW oral health training center doubles number of Spokane dental students

Second-year dental student Jeremy Percival uses a high-tech robot simulator on which students learn dental techniques in the University of Washington and Gonzaga University dental program on Thursday in Spokane. The UW cooperative RIDE program, called Regional Initiatives in Dental Education, offered tours of the new Spokane Regional Oral Health Care Training Center Thursday morning. Percival is using a pair of ocular loupes, which allows him to look straight ahead when he is actually looking down into the mouth of the mannequin, which will avoid injury to the neck and spine through a long career in dentistry. (Jesse Tinsley/The Spokesman-Review)
By Amanda Sullender amandas@spokesman.com(509) 459-5455

The University of Washington’s new oral health training center doubles the capacity for Spokane-based students training to bring access to dentistry to rural Washington.

A partnership between UW and Eastern Washington University, Regional Initiatives in Dental Education has trained future dentists at the Spokane campus since 2008, but across several different buildings and campuses. The new facility brings all of Spokane dental training under one roof within the UW School of Medicine.

The new 13,000-square-foot facility within the medical school building includes a dental simulation lab, digital dentistry lab, wet lab, a dispensary for learning how to handle drugs used in dentistry, classrooms and administrative spaces.

These new lab spaces allow dental students to complete two years of their education in Spokane before going to the Seattle campus, where before the students only completed a single year in Spokane.

“Students previously did all their major lab work in Spokane. But because of our new simulation lab, we’re able to actually do all that second-year lab work here,” said RIDE director Frank Roberts.

While the first year of dental school focuses on more general medical school classes, students in their second year learn how to do fillings, crowns, bridges, root canals and dentures on mock patients, Roberts said.

The simulation lab has dozens of stations, each with a mannequin head with an open mouth that students can practice on.

The construction of such a Spokane-based lab was a “dream of the RIDE program” for many years, Roberts said.

Spokane native Raman Singh said he was glad to stay in Spokane for his second year of dental school.

“All this is much bigger. We have so much more space to do our stuff, which I think will lead to more effective learning,” he said. “Last year was amazing. This year will be better.”

Singh hopes to practice his dentistry in a rural setting, where good oral health care can be difficult to access.

“For many rural communities, they don’t have a provider nearby. I would love to make an impact on a community like that if I can,” he said.

Roberts called Spokane the perfect hub for future dentists hoping to practice in rural settings, which has been the goal of RIDE since its founding.

The new facility will also focus on “digital dentistry,” which has replaced older methods in many areas.

“It used to be if you had a crown, the dentist would take mold of your tooth. We are moving further and further away from that. We are teaching our students to scan and model teeth digitally,” said RIDE associate director Natasha Flake.

The new facility cost $4 million to construct and was funded by the state and federal governments. It increases RIDE’s capacity from 32 to 64 students annually.

Dental students got their first look at the new labs Thursday while newly inaugurated University of Washington President Robert Jones toured the facility. It was his first visit to Eastern Washington since starting the job in August.

“It’s critically important that the University of Washington is not viewed as being just localized in Seattle. We have a deep obligation for the whole state of Washington in the region and to influence what goes on in the nation. And I was very clear that during my first hundred days, I needed to see firsthand what we’re doing in eastern Washington,” Jones said.