Ivy Tech Community College South Bend-Elkhart cut the ribbon last week on an expanded dental hygiene clinic with 18 chairs, a $2.5 million project funded entirely through private donations. The new space serves double duty as a working clinic for the South Bend-Elkhart community and a classroom for dental hygiene students, giving roughly 40 students access to a larger facility and new technology.
As reported by WVPE, the expansion's financial scope and new chair count mark one of the more significant capital investments in the campus's health sciences programs in years.
The ribbon-cutting ceremony took place on Wednesday, October 14, 2026.
Patrick Englert, chancellor of the South Bend Ivy Tech campus, said the college hopes the upgraded facility will both sharpen students' career skills before they enter the workforce and encourage more students to consider dentistry as a career path, according to ABC57. Indiana faces a statewide shortage of dentists, a problem the new clinic is designed to help chip away at from the ground up.
A Shortage That Runs Statewide and Nationwide
The scale of that shortage is stark. Health workforce data from the Indiana University Bowen Center for Health Workforce Research & Policy shows that 63 of Indiana's 92 counties — 68% — are designated by federal health authorities as Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas, according to research published on IU Indianapolis ScholarWorks. The pressure isn't confined to Indiana either. The American Dental Association Health Policy Institute also discusses a dental hygienist shortage, per the American Dental Association.
That staffing bottleneck has real consequences for patients, since hygiene shortages force dental offices to limit appointment capacity and stretch out wait times for routine cleanings. Reporting from WVPE notes that Ivy Tech trains a substantial share of the practicing dental hygienists working across Michiana, which stretches across northern Indiana and southwestern Michigan, making the South Bend campus expansion directly relevant to how quickly local patients can get seen.
Lawmakers Have Already Moved on the Issue
Indiana legislators have also been working on the supply side of the problem. In February 2025, the Indiana House approved legislation to join the interstate Dentist and Dental Hygienist Compact, a move intended to make it easier for licensed out-of-state dental professionals to begin practicing in Indiana, as Hoodline reported at the time. Separately, the South Bend clinic expansion will increase training capacity.
Ivy Tech Community College's South Bend dental hygiene program now has an expanded clinic with 18 chairs. The larger facility gives dental hygiene students more space for training.
Discounted Care Now Available to the Public
Beyond training new hygienists, the clinic doubles as a low-cost care option for area residents. Members of the public can schedule discounted cleanings, exams and X-rays performed by supervised dental students, either by booking online through the college website or calling the clinic directly at 574-289-7001 extension 6800. The clinic serves as both a lab space for students and a community clinic for South Bend and Elkhart residents, offering care that ranges from low-cost to free depending on the service.
For a region where more than two-thirds of Indiana counties face federal dental shortage designations, the newly expanded clinic represents a rare instance where a campus construction project and a community health need point in exactly the same direction.
