New dental course offered at Northeast State in collaboration with UT

KINGSPORT — On Monday, a giant box of orange dental floss sat outside of the Kingsport Higher Education Center under a sign that read "Expanded Function Dental Auxiliary." The occasion was the ribbon cutting — or rather, floss cutting — of a new dental course at Northeast State Community College in collaboration with the University of Tennessee. Dentists from across the state, Kingsport city officials and members of the Northeast State community gathered to celebrate the new program which kicked off its first course the same day. Dr. Jerry McKinney, a dentist who works at the UT Health Science Center, College of Dentistry and director of the expanded functions for the EFDA program based in Memphis, spoke to the crowd about the potential impact of the program. Kingsport City Manager Chris McCartt also spoke, sharing the city's excitement "to continue to allow partnerships like what we have here today to grow, but also to meet those initiatives of healthy smiles, being able to train dentists, place dentists, especially in those rural areas." A key role in dentistry Expanded Function Dental Auxiliary is a dental assistant or hygienist who has taken a state credentialed course to perform more advanced procedures than what a dental assistant or hygienist can typically perform. McKinney offered what he called a "rough analogy," stating that EFDAs are to dentists as physician assistants are to medical doctors. There are two expanded function courses: restorative and prosthetic. The collaboration housed at Northeast State's Kingsport campus will teach the restorative course. Some of the procedures credentialed restorative EFDAs can perform include filling placement for all classifications of cavities and medicated base and liner placements underneath fillings to sedate teeth. They are also trained to carve teeth, so they are anatomically correct in form and function. The EFDA difference Training and placing EFDAs creates more impact than just increasing the credentials of dental assistants and hygienists. According to McKinney, surveys show that having just one EFDA in a dentist's office brings a 15 to 45% increase in production. Therefore, "it helps access to care with people. We can see more people and see them quicker than we would have otherwise," McKinney said. An increase in productivity also leads to an increase in income. McKinney shared that today, newly graduated dentists are "anywhere from $500,000 to $750,000 in debt." An EFDA can help dentists pay off their debt faster. McKinney emphasized the help EFDAs can provide in Tennessee specifically. "So much of the Appalachian areas are underserved. There're counties in West Tennessee that maybe have one dentist, and they're 70 years old, you know, and the closest dentist is 50 miles away. So, this program helps all of those conditions to alleviate some of that stress," he said. The course at Northeast State The new class at Northeast State can accommodate 12 students at a time. Students begin the course with a few Zoom lecture sessions before attending ten straight eight to nine hour days of training on campus. Once newly certified EFDA's complete their course, they will continue to receive dentist mentorship. "It's always a pleasure to work with these students because they're always top notch," McKinney said. "It's a great thing for the community and we're just so proud at UT to be able to provide this."