Ribbon Cutting held for new Kingsport Dental Clinic

The Kingsport Dental Clinic of the Appalachian Highlands hit a major milestone last Wednesday afternoon, as city, state and education officials held a ribbon cutting ceremony for the 6,500-square-foot facility.

Located near the campus of Holston Valley Medical Center, this new training clinic will serve as a rotation site for dental students and offer a full-time Advanced Education in General Dentistry residency. The clinic will also host dental hygiene student rotations from East Tennessee State University.

Speakers during Wednesday’s ribbon cutting included Sen. Jon Lundberg, University of Tennessee Health Science Center Chancellor Peter Buckley, Phil Wenk with Delta Dental, Kingsport City Manager Chris McCartt and Kingsport Mayor Pat Shull.

The facility – which is slated to open for students in September – includes 12 treatment rooms and $1.6 million in state-of-the-art equipment. More than $1.4 million in renovations took place at the facility over the past year.

Earlier this spring, the State of Tennessee allocated $6.5 million in its budget for the dental clinic project.

Planning for the new clinic began in October 2022 when Kingsport, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Ballad Health and East Tennessee State University signed a historic collaboration that included two public universities, private corporate sponsors and community leaders.

Future plans call for the clinic to eventually become a full-fledged college of dentistry.

The project is part of the UT College of Dentistry’s Healthy Smiles Initiative, which seeks to increase dental class sizes and add new student clinical rotation sites across the state to increase access to dental care.

This article will be updated with more detailed information once the clinic starts accepting patients.