KCU’s Dr. Abbott talks dentist shortages
The U.S. faces a significant and growing dentist shortage, particularly in rural areas and underserved communities, with nearly 60 million Americans living in designated Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) as of 2024, leading to disparities in access to care, especially for minority groups and those with lower incomes.
This shortage isn’t just about numbers; it’s about geographic distribution, with some states having very low dentist-to-population ratios, creating “dental deserts” where residents struggle to find providers.
Joplin finds itself fortunate to have a world-class facility in The KCU College of Dental Medicine, that opened its door just two short years ago and started serving the community almost immediately with patients needing urgent care and this year with hands-on teaching of its doctor students for patients from children to the elderly.
NewsTalk KZRG interviewed Dr. Dennis Abbott, Assistant Dean of Integrated Biomedical and Clinical Sciences at KCU. What follows is some of our conversation. We asked him about clinical operations and student integration.
“We opened in August of 2023, and were seeing only urgent care needs,” he said. “And then we eventually developed into having a more active role for kind of full time once we got students that were in the clinic. The students don’t get into the clinic full time until their third year. And so this is the first year that we’ve actually had students there in the clinic. And so we’re kind of in full operations now. We’ll have two classes in the clinic beginning in the summer of 26. That will even ramp up a little bit more what’s going on in the clinic. But we’ve been here meeting the needs of the community from an urgent care standpoint.
“The students are overseen by faculty members. You’ve got a student doctor there, plus you’ve got a licensed dentist who’s overseeing the entire process and making sure that everything’s done well, everything’s done correctly. And so you’ve got kind of a team there.”
We asked him why dentists choose academic careers. He said, “I think that it’s for a variety of reasons. For me, it was about part of the legacy that I wanted to leave and just really having a desire to kind of help shape this next generation of dentists. I know that some people also just have a unique passion for teaching.
“I think for some people it’s just kind of the next phase of their professional journey. It’s just kind of what else is out there? What else can I do with a DDS or a DMD degree? So I think that all of those things are reasons why people choose academic careers.”
When asked what types of positions the school provides, Dr Abbott said, “Right now here at KCU College of Dental Medicine, we have people that are in- clinic, and so we have general dentists that are working in the clinic. We have general dentists that teach didactic lectures. We have specialists. These are also full and part time positions. So we have full time and adjunct positions. I think it’s an opportunity that either somebody just out of school would like to take. It might be something that, like myself, I sold a practice and it was kind of that next stage for me after selling my dental practice. I didn’t really want to necessarily worry about the business side of running a practice anymore, but still wanted to do something that was meaningful and impactful.”
Dr. Abbott talked about what elevates KCU, “I’ll tell you what, KCU is great. It’s been a wonderful place to work. I think the camaraderie of the faculty is amazing. The state of the art of the facilities is fantastic. There are opportunities for research, if that’s something that you’re interested in, either clinically or even, you know, really, you know, hard science research. I think it’s a great supportive environment. It’s an opportunity to, like I said, to teach, to build camaraderie with fellow colleagues, but also with the students. I think there’s also a really, you know, a strong Community impact here in Joplin.
“I think Joplin sees KCU as their dental school, and that’s what we want. We love having the buy in, if you will, from the Joplin community. And I think that it means a lot to us, and I hope it means a lot to the community. I think it’s also a great opportunity just for collaboration. A lot of times if you’ve been in private practice for a while, it gets kind of isolated in the four walls of your office. And so this is a chance for you to be around other colleagues, to bounce ideas off of them, to stay current with continuing education courses, stay current on what’s happening in dentistry right now. So I think there are a lot of reasons why KCU is a great place to work.”
For those interested in joining the Kansas City University family as a faculty or staff member at the Joplin campus, an interest form is available on the university webpage, or you can contact the campus directly by phone. Job postings are updated regularly, detailing the open positions and required qualifications. From there, applicants enter a structured hiring process managed by our dedicated HR recruiter, who handles this aspect efficiently and effectively.