The College of Dentistry at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center today celebrated the start of construction on a new dental training clinic in Kingsport, Tennessee.
When completed, the clinic, named the Kingsport Dental Clinic of the Appalachian Highlands, will serve as a rotation site for dental students and offer a full-time Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency. Additionally, the clinic will host Dental Hygiene student rotations from East Tennessee State University.
Planning for the new training site began in October 2022, when the city of Kingsport, UT Health Science Center, Ballad Health, and East Tennessee State University signed a memorandum of understanding to plan for the possibility of a partnership. The agreement represented a historic collaboration, including two public universities and a large number of private corporate sponsors, as well as leaders from across the community.
“This is probably the most exciting thing—and the most important thing—happening in Kingsport right now,” said Kingsport Mayor Pat Shull.
“This started because of a group of people in this community came together with a good idea, and it is a historic investment in this community and the region,” UT System President Randy Boyd told the audience gathered at the site for the celebration.
The Kingsport Chamber hosted today’s event. The new clinic facility is a second-floor renovation and demolition has begun. Because of that, a symbolic groundbreaking featured a tub filled with 4,000 individually wrapped toothbrushes that are among a total of 8,000 to be donated through the Kingsport Chamber to area schools.
Read more at our UTHSC News site.