The Regional Initiative in Dental Education, or RIDE, program is doubling the number of students and the amount of time they can spend studying in Spokane.
That’s good news for people—and teeth—all over the state.
Thanks to their brand new space on the fourth floor of the UW-GU Health Partnership building, more than 60 dental students can now spend half of their degree time studying and forming connections in Eastern Washington.
The penthouse lab and nearby classrooms have state of the art Zoom set ups to keep lectures in Seattle and Spokane in sync.
Eastern Washington University’s 13-year partnership with the University of Washington School of Dentistry has a track record of sending about 80% of recent grads to rural areas.
UW’s new president Robert J. Jones said the public university has a responsibility to the entire state.
“How do we leverage our expertise in the health sciences to impact people where they live and to provide an opportunity to train dentists and physicians to really address the great need in rural and underserved communities?" he said.
Recent RIDE graduates are currently practicing near Clarkston, Connell, Ephrata, Okanogan, Twisp, Oroville, and Colville.
Dawn Lewis-Kinnunen is EWU's Dean of Health Science and Public Health. She said people who live further from dental care or have a poor dental experience are more likely to live longer with pain.
“In rural places or rural communities, they would normally go to the hospital to the emergency room for dental care if they have a tooth that needs to be extracted or something," she said.
She’s speaking to a tour group who’s distracted by a second year dental student practicing placing a filling – very gently – into a mannequin’s mouth.
“With RIDES program, and with the other programs that we have around dental health here, we are helping to reduce the concerns and the worries because they're having good experiences in the dental chair," she said.
RIDE students start classes next week.
