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Grant to expand colleges’ oral health programs
Four Colorado schools will get aid from Delta Dental Foundation
BY TATIANA FLOWERS THE COLORADO SUN
Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation, one of the largest funders of oral health initiatives in the state, said it’s granting a total of nearly $5 million to four colleges to help them expand existing dental hygiene programs or start new ones from scratch — all with the goal of addressing workforce shortages and diversifying the profession.
e grants, split among Front Range Community College, Community College of Denver, Colorado Mountain College and Pikes Peak State College, will be distributed in installments over the next four years. e colleges were selected in part because of their diverse student populations, said Adeeb Khan, executive director of Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation.
e grants will help establish dental hygiene programs at Front Range Community College, Colorado Mountain College and Pikes Peak State College by 2025 and will expand the number of seats available to students in an existing dental hygiene program at Community College of Denver starting this fall.
e three public colleges that currently o er dental hygiene programs in the state have a total of 75 seats for students who want to become dental hygienists. e new grants aim to double the state’s capacity to train dental hygienists in programs that usually last two to three years.
“Two years ago, we made a fundamental decision to deepen our commitment to oral health equity by investing with an expectation of long-term outcomes,” Khan said. “ e investments we’re celebrating today will ensure that Colorado has the ability to address oral health care workforce shortages by expanding our capacity to train dental hygienists and also providing more pathways for diverse populations.”
Delta Dental of Colorado Foundation leaders announced the grants at a time when the number of dental hygienists continues to dwindle and the industry struggles to meet the needs of Colorado’s growing population. Coloradans won’t see a drastic change in the number of dental hygienists for a few years, but Delta Dental leaders said the grants are essential to eventually closing the gap. e grants are o ered to schools that already have a commitment to diversifying their student population. Attracting, educating and retaining dental hygienists who are people of color, and those who speak multiple languages, for example, can help achieve racial balance between dental providers and their patients, increase access to care and create oral health equity.
Higher education o cials recently gathered with Gov. Jared Polis, at a Denver coworking space for health care professionals to announce the distribution of the grants.
At the event, Polis said, the dental industry is not the only profession navigating a workforce shortage in Colorado. Last year, the state created e Care Forward Colorado Program to address shortages in health care jobs. e program provides a free education to students interested in becoming certi ed nursing assistants, emergency medical technicians, pharmacy technicians, phlebotomy technicians, medical assistants or dental assistants, he said.
Since the program was implemented, more than 1,400 Coloradans have gone through the program, and there has been a 20% to 30% increase in the number of people seeking certi cation to work in those professions, Polis said.
Now, with the new grants from Delta Dental of Colorado Founda-