By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
The University of Missouri – Kansas City has a School of Medicine satellite campus in St. Joseph. It might have a School of Dentistry in St. Joseph as well.
UMKC Chancellor Mauli Agrawal says the university expanded to St. Joseph to address a shortage of medical professionals in rural Missouri and soon hopes to also address a severe shortage of dentists and dental hygienists.
“And so now that we felt more comfortable with a satellite program in St. Joe because of the medical program, we thought it’s time to address the dental shortage as well,” Agrawal tells KFEQ/St. Joseph Post in a phone interview.
Work must be done before it becomes reality. UMKC must receive approval. It must also raise money.
Agrawal says UMKC has been in negotiations with Missouri Western State University about renovating open space on its St. Joseph campus. Agrawal says UMKC estimates it will take $12 million for renovations.
Under the proposal, dental students would spend their first two years on the Kansas City campus. They then would transfer to clinics on the MWSU campus in St. Joseph. There, they will do actual dental work on low-income patients who might not have dental insurance or not enough insurance to afford a dentist.
Agrawal says UMKC began to consider expansion to St. Joseph after he spoke with leaders in northern Missouri about the lack of dental care in rural Missouri. The federal government has identified approximately 500 areas throughout the country suffering from a severe shortage of dentists or dental hygienists.
“In Iowa and Nebraska, the federal government has identified four areas of shortage. In Kansas, seven or eight. Missouri had 18; 1-8,” according to Agrawal. “And, as you can see, that’s way above our fair share across the nation. So, yes, there is a severe shortage across the whole state of Missouri.”
The UMKC School of Medicine in St. Joseph began in cooperation with Mosaic Life Care at the hospital campus in St. Joseph. It graduated its first students in January. A $14.5 million medical building is under construction across the street from Mosaic.
Agrawal says the goal of both the medical school and the dental school is to address the shortage of medical and dental care in rural Missouri. The thought being that if students train in an area, they are more likely to set up practice in that area.
“I think it’s been a win-win,” Agrawal says. “Only time will tell if we really impact the shortage, but we cannot not do anything. There’s a severe shortage in our state and we need to step up and do the work so that we can at least start addressing the shortage.”
If approval is granted and the money raised, UMKC hopes to open its St. Joseph School of Dentistry satellite campus in the fall of 2027.
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