Work has begun on the transformation and expansion of the college of dentistry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center that will deliver state-of-the-art dental techniques laboratories, more teaching space and the ability for the school to expand, educating more future dentists in a state in desperate need of them.
James Ragain, dean of the UTHSC College of Dentistry, said the $45 million project, which includes the construction of the new Delta Dental of Tennessee Building and renovation of the existing Dunn Dental Building at 875 Union Ave., is expected to be complete in spring 2023.
The new four-story, 68,000-square-foot facility will have 10 dental treatment rooms for the University Dental Practice, allowing more faculty members to have their own practices. It will also have a more than 130-seat auditorium and two seminar rooms, 134 manikin stations in preclinical dental techniques laboratories, faculty offices and student locker space. It will almost double the size of UTHSC’s dental facilities.
“It’s a huge addition to our campus and our college of dentistry,” Ragain said.
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In addition, the new building will also house a special needs dental clinic, specially designed to accommodate individuals who live with physical, developmental or intellectual disabilities. The clinic will be designed to be easily navigable for people who use wheelchairs and some rooms will be designed to be less visually and auditorily stimulating for individuals with autism.
The building will also have a Dean’s Suite, moving Ragain and Executive Associate Dean Dr. Jeff Brooks out of the basem*nt of the Dunn building (which Ragain jokingly referred to as the administrative level, rather than the basem*nt). That space can now be used to house student organizations that currently don’t have a home, he said.
Expansion benefits both the school and surrounding communities
Additional space means more classes will be held in the dental buildings, so students don’t have to constantly go back and forth from the general education building. He added the move would help integrate first- and second-year students more into the clinical setting.
Having new facilities will allow the school to recruit top faculty and students, Ragain said, and it will also be able to grow its student population from the current dental class of 98, up to 130 in a few years.
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“Our vision for our college is clinical excellence and dental education,” he said. “We need to have the best faculty, the best leaders, the best students we can get… You’ve got to have the up-to-date, state-of-the-art, beautiful facilities. And then last but not least, you’ve got to have scholarships and endowments to support students and clinical research.”
Given that the school trains a majority of the doctors who go on to practice in Arkansas and many of those who practice in Tennessee — which have some of the lowest dentists-per-capita rates in the nation— growing the school benefits not just UTHSC, but surrounding communities.
Together, the old and new buildings will be referred to as the Delta Dental of Tennessee Oral Health Complex, named for the company that has given more than $16.5 million to the college over the past 25 years, including several million for the new facility.
“All along, Delta Dental... their foundation has given us funding for dental equipment and other needs that we’ve had,” Ragain said. “They really helped out a lot during the pandemic. Overnight we needed (personal protective equipment), we needed a way of sterilizing those, and Delta Dental was able to help us with that.”
Turner Construction is the contractor for the project.
Dental care as usual
Brooks said despite the construction and the pandemic, they are still seeing dental patients at the college.
“We are running at full capacity and nothing has changed,” he said. “We’re running a very safe treatment area... we’ve implemented all the safety measures to keep patient care safe in this COVID environment.”
Brooks said they were also accepting new patients. For returning patients, the only thing that has changed is the parking and the entrance to the building — patients now enter on the east side of the building.
Corinne S Kennedy covers economic development, soccer and COVID-19’s impact on hospitals for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached via email at Corinne.Kennedy@CommercialAppeal.com or at 901-297-3245.
At a glance
The new Delta Dental of Tennessee Building at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Dentistry will allow for the school to expand its class size and provide state-of-the-art facilities. Here are a few quick facts about the project.
Size: 68,000 square feet
Cost: $45 million
Expected completion: spring 2023
Features: faculty offices, seminar rooms, lecture auditorium, dental techniques laboratories for dental and dental hygiene programs
