Temple University plans to open Pennsylvania’s first rural dental school in Tamaqua.

“We are an urban school but hopefully within 12 months we will also be a rural school,” said Dr. Amid Ismail, dean of Temple’s Kornburg School of Dentistry.

Ismail made the announcement during a state Senate Majority Policy Committee hearing held Wednesday to address the dire need for dentists and dental assistance in rural parts of the commonwealth.

Studies show that at least 50% of the state is underserved when it comes to dental care.

“In order to solve the problem of having dentists work in areas like Tamaqua, we need to be located in Tamaqua,” Ismail said.

Students would study for two years at Temple University in Philadelphia, then head to Tamaqua for two years to live and train. Temple will foot the bill for the students’ housing, Ismail said.

“We are building that model, and if it is successful, it can be expanded,” Ismail said, hinting that the university is exploring five other rural sites for schools.

While the location for the school hasn’t been determined, a potential site is on South Railroad Street near where the St. Luke’s Rural Health Center stands.

Students would be housed in apartments that will be created at the former Scheid’s Department store on West Broad Street, which is owned by the Tamaqua Area Community Partnership. Ismail said they’ll be able to walk to classes.

The school would have about 20 students each year, and as they train, they could see patients from Schuylkill, Carbon and Luzerne counties.

Temple will also hire a dentist, who will also see patients at the 23-chair proposed clinic.

Ismail estimated that the school could open in September of 2026.

“That’s probably one of the most important things that anyone has said in this community for a long time,” said state Sen. David Argall, who chairs the Senate committee.

The three-hour hearing, held at Lehigh Carbon Community College, brought together state lawmakers, dentists, health care officials, statewide dental association and college officials.

Panelists presented data that proved just how important dental care is — and how difficult it is to find in rural areas.

Helen Hawkey, executive director of the PA Coalition for Oral Health, said tooth decay can lead to loss of sleep, speech problems and a poor diet in children.

“A child who has a mouth full of rotting teeth cannot eat healthy food,” she said.

Tooth decay and gum disease can lead to serious health problems like heart disease, stroke, diabetes and respiratory issues, she added. Poor oral hygiene may also lead to a painkiller addiction, she noted.

Hawkey said the coalition called dentists throughout Pennsylvania to see what the average wait time was for an appointment.

“It was 55 days,” she said.

According to the coalition’s review of the dental care workforce, Pennsylvania needs 2,000 dentists, 7,000 dental hygienists and 10,000 expanded function dental assistants to provide every person with regular dental care.

And when folks can’t get an appointment for teeth or gum problems, they often visit emergency departments, which aren’t usually equipped to deal with dental issues.

About 2 million hospital visits per year are due to oral issues that could be prevented with regular dental care. The visits drain resources from already strained rural hospitals and undermine their ability to meet broader community health needs, according to the Hospital and Health System Association of Pennsylvania.

The Tamaqua Rural Health Clinic has one dental chair but is not accepting new patients.

“We are booked out for two years,” said Jessica Brennan, a clinic dental care provider.

She said she sees young children with abscesses, and senior citizens who are not eating because of their tooth loss.

“This is a normal situation,” she said.

Kaitlyn Goode, of the Center for Rural Pennsylvania, noted that half of Pennsylvania’s dentists are at or near retirement age.

She also said that the American Dental Association recommends 60 dentists for every 1,000 people. In rural Pennsylvania counties, the average is 34.9 dentists for 1,000 people.

The decline is expected to last until at least 2040, studies show.

Dr. Karen Rainey, director of the Dental Health Department at Luzerne County Community College, called for a new dental school in rural Pennsylvania, saying “currently all three dental schools in Pennsylvania are in large metropolitan areas. But a dental school in northeastern or central Pennsylvania whose mission would be to improve dental care in underserved areas could help educate future dentists who will return to their hometown to serve their neighbors.”

She discussed how that would address one of the biggest barriers to addressing this shortage: “When students can learn and work in their own communities, they’re far more likely to stay and serve in those communities.”

“If you don’t have a regular dentist right now, good luck in trying to find one,” state Rep. Jamie Barton, R-124, said at the beginning of the hearing.

Dr. Maria Taceloskey said she’s had to pull decayed teeth from children who never had dental care, and was once asked to try to fit a used pair of dentures to another man’s mouth.

Other participants included Karen Clark, Lehigh Carbon Community College; Michael C. Verber, Verber Dental Group; Marnie Oakley, University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine; Joan I. Gluch, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine; Sen. Lisa Baker, R-20; Sen. Cris Dush, R-25; Rep. Tim Twardzik, R-123; Rep. Doyle Heffley, R-122; and Evelyn Datte, office of Congressman Dan Meuser, 9th District.