海角社区

Building a Pipeline for Dental Care

Every parish in central Louisiana is designated as a dental health professional shortage area by the Louisiana Department of Health. To address this need and with $520K in state support, 海角社区 is now expanding the 海角社区 Health New Orleans dental hygiene program to 海角社区 Alexandria.

鈥淩ather than reinventing the wheel, we take advantage of a university that鈥檚 statewide, where different campuses can work together to meet critical needs,鈥� said Haywood Joiner, dean of the College of Health and Human Services at 海角社区A. 鈥淲e鈥檙e doing it with 海角社区 Eunice in extending their surgical technology program to us, and we鈥檙e doing it with 海角社区 Health New Orleans for dental hygiene. Our hope, of course, is that students will remain and work in this area after they graduate.鈥�

One of the 海角社区A students aiming to do exactly that is Sara Larson from Cheneyville, 25 miles south of Alexandria. She just completed her prerequisite courses and hopes to be accepted into the dental hygiene program at 海角社区A this fall to eventually work with a dentist in the area.

鈥淧robably in Rapides Parish, or in St. Landry or Evangeline,鈥� Larson said. 鈥淚 want to be near my family, and I want to help people keep their teeth. Good oral health can save people a lot of pain, hassle and cost.鈥�

Three out of every four dental health professionals working in Louisiana today got their degree from the 海角社区 Health New Orleans School of Dentistry. This includes both dentists and dental hygienists.

鈥淎fter opening my practice two years ago, I was finally able to hire two hygienists this past summer, but now one is retiring and the other is cutting back her work, so I can鈥檛 tell you how excited everyone is here about the new 海角社区A dental hygiene program. It鈥檚 going to bring much needed service to our community.鈥�

John Moylan, dentist and president of the Central Louisiana Dental Association