The University of Maine at Augusta will use more than $200,000 it received from three grants to double the number of dental assistant students it enrolls and add a new location for the program, according to a Dec. 7 Morning Sentinel report.
The school received more than $200,000 from the University of Maine System’s Program Innovation Fund, Libra Foundation and Northeast Delta Dental Foundation, which will allow it to accept 12 more students to its dental assistant program. The new students will study at a new lab in Lewiston, Maine, according to the newspaper.
Before receiving the grants, the program had just 12 openings for students and did not feature any labs outside of Bangor, Maine.
Amanda Willette, the dental assistant program's coordinator, told the Morning Sentinel doubling the class size will help meet dental staffing needs across the state. She said she receives calls every week from dentists seeking to fill dental assistant positions, and there has been a 100 percent placement rate during her six years at the school.
"What UMA is doing for the state is improving access to dental care," Ms. Willette told the newspaper. "Access to care is an issue, and if you don’t have access to providers, Mainers can’t have the dental care that they need."
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