A dental clinic built inside a former Rite Aid pharmacy in Tamaqua has been averaging 30 patients a day since it opened Sept. 2, and on Friday, Temple University leaders, state officials and community members gathered to formally dedicate the facility at a grand opening ceremony in the borough’s business district.
The Temple University Dental Clinic and Education Center, located at 205 Center St., is described by the university as Pennsylvania’s first university-run rural dental clinic, according to the Hazleton Standard Speaker. The state-of-the-art, 24-chair facility is staffed by five dental students and four internationally trained dentists working toward U.S. certification, and it serves residents of Schuylkill, Carbon and Luzerne counties, an area where roughly 18% of the combined 400,000 residents are eligible for medical assistance, per the same report.
Temple University President John Fry took part in the grand opening and spoke about the clinic’s impact. Fry said about 40% of adults living in rural areas have not visited a dentist in more than a year, and he noted that limited access to dental visits can lead to debilitating long-term health problems, according to the Times News.
A Years-Long Push Becomes Reality
The clinic’s roots trace back to a 2023 Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health conference, where Amid Ismail, dean of Temple’s Kornberg School of Dentistry, asked attendees whether anyone would be interested in hosting a rural clinic with Temple. Micah Gursky, executive director of the Tamaqua Area Community Partnership, expressed interest in hosting one, per the Times News account.
Ismail said dental care is not always readily available in the area, and elected officials helped secure funding for the project, which has received support from Temple University, state and federal government, the Tamaqua CRIZ Authority and the Morgan Foundation. The clinic aims to address rural dental-care needs, according to the Times News report.
Argall also spoke about the project. Barton said rural health-care shortages remain a concern across Pennsylvania.
One Patient’s Relief After Months of Pain
Among those treated at the clinic was a woman who had endured a significant toothache for more than 10 months but could not get a dentist appointment, per the Times News. She needed a tooth extraction, and attending faculty offered to pull the tooth that same day — a moment that reportedly brought her to tears of joy.
The clinic’s opening was described as a new day for Tamaqua. Representatives from Temple and the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services were present at the grand opening. Student housing is located at 24 W. Broad St.
Training Dentists to Stay in Rural Areas
Temple’s original announcement of the project described plans to host 10 third-year and 10 fourth-year dental students for their final two years of education at the Tamaqua facility, according to Temple Now. Temple students are expected to complete their final two years of education at the clinic. The program will host 20 students, and Temple hopes some will practice in rural areas, per the Times News.
Temple has said the clinic is designed predominantly to serve Medicaid patients, according to WVIA. The clinic also hopes to implement a school-based program for children, with the Times News reporting the Tamaqua clinic plans to start that school-based dental program in 2027 — modeled in part on Temple’s existing program at William D. Kelly Elementary School in Philadelphia, which the Standard Speaker reports provides dental care to 1,000 students.
The Rural Dental Gap Behind the Project
The need driving the Tamaqua clinic is well documented. The Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health reports that 90% of the state’s rural counties face a shortage of dentists, with rural counties averaging about 3.7 dentists for every 10,000 people, per the Standard Speaker’s citation of the coalition’s data.
A 2022 workforce report from the Pennsylvania Coalition for Oral Health examines the state’s dental workforce.
