\n<\/p>\n
Kyla Marks\u2019s grandmother grew up in a small rural town in Mississippi where access to dental care was scarce\u2014a gap that left her without most of her teeth by the time she was in her mid-30s.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I came into this world and met her, I never really saw her smile,\u201d said Marks, a fourth-year dental student at Meharry Medical College, one of the nation\u2019s oldest and largest historically Black medical schools.<\/p>\n
When her grandmother died in 2020, Marks carried that loss with her, determined to expand access to dental care in underserved communities.<\/p>\n
\u201cHaving a focus in rural areas is really important because sometimes they\u2019re scared to go to the dentist,\u201d Marks said. \u201cI\u2019m not able to restore my grandmother\u2019s smile, but with my patients, I treat them like they\u2019re my own family members. Just showing them love and care\u2014having that small interaction\u2014can really change their trajectory.\u201d<\/p>\n
Marks is one of more than 300 students in Meharry\u2019s dental school. Since 2018, the institution has expanded its reach beyond its home base in Nashville, positioning itself as a critical provider in rural health-care deserts across Tennessee.<\/p>\n
Meharry\u2019s mobile dental units have traveled to underserved communities throughout the state. Last year alone, providers performed more than 4,000 dental procedures across Tennessee.<\/p>\n
The mobile dental expansion comes at a critical moment for rural health: Nine hospitals in Tennessee\u2014and roughly 300 nationwide\u2014are at risk of closure due to funding cuts in last year\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act, leaving many communities with shrinking access to care. In that landscape, Meharry has become a leading provider in many rural communities, including among predominantly white populations that might not traditionally seek care from an urban-based, historically Black medical school.<\/p>\n
The effort reflects Meharry\u2019s long-standing mission, said Julie Gray, associate dean of external affairs at the college, who leads its mobile efforts.<\/p>\n
\u201cMany of our patients are white and they love us no differently\u2014and we serve them no differently,\u201d Gray said. \u201cTeaching our students how to serve people, restore confidence, build trust and patience, is what we do, no matter who the patient is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Meharry\u2019s mobile dental units performed over 4,000 dental procedures across Tennessee last year.<\/span><\/p>\n Supporting underserved communities:<\/strong> Gray said Meharry\u2019s mission-driven approach treats health care as a civic right\u2014a model for the way medical schools can strengthen rural health infrastructure.<\/p>\n In practice, that includes reaching populations often overlooked by traditional systems. For instance, Meharry\u2019s mobile units provide a critical dental lifeline for youth in state custody, traveling directly to state-supported facilities so vulnerable children do not fall through cracks in the system.<\/p>\n \u201cMobility is important to reaching these young people because it\u2019s so challenging for our state partners to reach them,\u201d Gray said. \u201cSome of them are shackled, some of them have transportation issues, so it is a labor of love for us to organize our team to go there.\u201d<\/p>\n Gray said the work helps student dentists better understand what serving vulnerable youth requires, deepening their sense of purpose for entering dentistry.<\/p>\n \u201cSome of these children are really young and could have been abandoned by their parents,\u201d Gray said. \u201cYou can see the sense of humility that Kyla and other Meharry students have because they can truly help children who feel lonely or abandoned.\u201d<\/p>\n Marks said encounters with youth in state custody reinforce the importance of meeting patients where they are.<\/p>\n \u201cSometimes they feel ostracized from society because they\u2019re in this facility, but they\u2019re normal kids,\u201d Marks said. \u201cI talked to one the other day and asked him, \u2018What do you want to do when you grow up?\u2019 and he told me he wants to be in the NFL. I said, \u2018OK, remember me when you make it to the big leagues.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Beyond youth in state custody, Marks said intentional conversations with rural patients\u2014many of whom have never received dental care or are hesitant to seek it\u2014can make a significant difference.<\/p>\n \u201cI have a patient in Shelbyville and she was quiet at first, but I let her talk to me and allowed space for her to feel comfortable,\u201d Marks said. <\/p>\n Other institutions are focused on narrowing access gaps elsewhere. Touro College of Dental Medicine launched New Mexico\u2019s first dental school and clinic to address one of the nation\u2019s lowest dentist-to-resident ratios. Ronnie Myers, the college\u2019s dean, said the national average stands at about 61\u00a0dentists per 100,000 residents. In New Mexico, that number is closer to 42 per 100,000\u2014well below the national benchmark. Like Meharry\u2019s expansion into rural Tennessee, the initiative is designed to bolster care in underserved communities.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s what I\u2019m trying to teach them,\u201d Gray said. \u201cWhen they\u2019re in that rural clinic, how they treat a patient matters for the rest of their career. I want them to carry Meharry\u2019s mission in their hearts and minds and serve underserved patients wherever they go.\u201d<\/p>\n Meharry\u2019s mobile dental units travel to bring dental care to underserved communities, including youth in juvenile custody facilities.<\/span><\/p>\n Changing outlooks: <\/strong>Marks said those small moments with rural, underserved patients often stay with her long after the appointment ends.<\/p>\n \u201cHaving those types of relationships with the patients, even if it\u2019s for a short period of time, you\u2019re able to change their outlook in life. You never know what that small moment could do,\u201d Marks said.<\/p>\n For Gray, the goal is not just to graduate dentists, but to produce leaders prepared to serve the communities that need them most.<\/p>\n \u201cI tell our students\u2014my students, is what I call them\u2014that they have a responsibility when they leave this place to give their time, their talents and their treasures,\u201d Gray said. \u201cHow they do that is up to them, but it is their responsibility as a Meharrian and as a dentist to give back in the way that was given to them.\u201d<\/p>\n Get more content like this directly to your inbox. <\/em>Subscribe here.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Kyla Marks\u2019s grandmother grew up in a small rural town in Mississippi where access to dental care was scarce\u2014a gap that left her without most of her teeth by the time she was in her mid-30s. \u201cWhen I came into this world and met her, I never really saw her smile,\u201d said Marks, a fourth-year<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[57],"tags":[1069,11864,2942,1958],"class_list":{"0":"post-45979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education","8":"tag-building","9":"tag-dental","10":"tag-rural","11":"tag-workforce"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/naijaglobalnews.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}