The Kansas Dental Association and the Delta Dental of Kansas Foundation unveil a new loan repayment program on Thursday. It will provide financial assistance to attract dentists to areas identified as under-served.
The program is the Kansas Initiative for New Dentists. "The KIND program will target the location of new dentists within the key four areas of Kansas
identified by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment Bureau of Oral Health as dental desert," said Hal Hale, President of the KDA.
The KDHE identified the areas where Kansans are not within 20 miles of a
dentist office. That data is what will guide the loan repayments and grants made under this program. The KIND program will target the location of dentists within these dental deserts which include communities like Greensburg, Medicine Lodge, Coldwater, Sublette, Satanta, Ness City, Sharon Springs and others.
"We are pledging up to $150,000 a year for each of the next three years to support this initiative. Depending on the level of funding awarded, recipients will be required to make either a three or four year service agreement. Mirroring a successful effort in Iowa, the Kansas initiative offers our state a proven program to help dentists local in those areas," said Dr. Stan Wint of Delta Dental.
Click here for more on the KIND program.
A University of Kansas study several years ago found 15 of the state's 105 counties have no dentist. In another 82 counties, there were more than 1,500 patients for every dentist, the number a dentist can treat on average.
