New Grant Funding Will Help Tech Colleges Meet High Demand for Dental Professionals; NTC in Wausau to Receive the Most

Saturday, May 11th, 2024 -- 8:00 AM

(Hope Kirwan, Wisconsin Public Radio) Leaders at Wisconsin’s technical colleges said new state grant funding will help them meet the high demand for new dental professionals.

According to Hope Kirwan with Wisconsin Public Radio, the state Legislature’s Joint Finance Committee released just under $20 million in state funding during their meeting on Tuesday.

The money was allocated to oral health care workforce grants through a bipartisan bill passed by state lawmakers in January. The funding is in response to a shortage of dental care workers in Wisconsin.

Federal data from January shows 34 of the state’s 72 counties have a dental health professional shortage, according to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau. That shortage is what drove Lakeshore Technical College in Manitowoc County to establish a new dental hygienist program.

It will serve 10 students annually starting in 2026. Meredith Sauer, vice president of instruction at Lakeshore, said the college began planning for the hygienist program last fall as a way to “be a part of the solution” for the worker shortage.

“We assessed what those costs were and as a college, we were prepared to move forward and begin to seek how we’re going to do that,” she said. “So this was really a great opportunity for us.”

Sauer said the $1.2 million grant from the state will go toward a remodel of the college’s dental clinic, including updating outdated equipment and adding dental chairs to accommodate more students.

She said the expansion will allow them to add the new hygienist degree without reducing enrollment in their dental assistant program, which currently uses the clinic. She said Lakeshore already has current and former students inquiring about the new program.

“Personally, I go to my dentist and the assistants are really grateful that they’ve heard we’re bringing back dental hygiene,” Sauer said. “They’ve been in the field now for a little while after their dental assistant training, and they’re ready to come back and take that next step.”

Northcentral Technical College in Wausau will receive the largest grant at $2.2 million. The college will create the state’s first dental therapy training program, a new mid-level provider that was approved for licensure by the state Legislature in January.

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