Expanded UW oral health training center is sending more new dentists to rural Washington
The University of Washington is hoping to send more dentists to rural parts of the state as dentists-in-training at the school's Spokane program have doubled in the past year.
Since 2008, the Regional Initiatives in Dental Education has trained dentists to practice in rural areas where the number of dentists may be very low. In the past, the RIDE program trained eight future dentists in Spokane for their first year, while the next three years of dental training occurred at the Seattle campus.
That changed last year when the program moved into the top floor of UW's medical school building on Gonzaga University's campus. The program doubled its size to 16 students and expanded Spokane-based training to the second year of dental school.
"The second year of dental school is very hands-on and intensive. It is where students begin to learn the actual practice of dentistry before they start treating patients," said UW School of Dentistry Dean Andre Ritter, who has spent the month of April on the Spokane campus.
Riley Cissne is among the first class of second-year medical students at the program and hopes to return to his hometown of Pasco to practice dentistry when he graduates.
"My goal is to be a dentist in Eastern Washington. I want to practice in a rural and underserved area because I'm from an area that might be considered one of those areas," he said.
Between his first and second year in dental school, Cissne spent a monthlong rotation in Ephrata, Washington, and he hopes to return there in the six-month clinical rotation completed in his fourth and final year of dental school.
There were 7,071 dentists in Washington state as of 2024, but most of those dentists are concentrated on the West Side or population centers like Spokane. According to the Washington State Department of Health, King County had the most dentists per capita with 111 per 100,000 residents, and Spokane County had 71 dentists per 100,000 residents.
The number of dentists dramatically falls in many rural counties surrounding Spokane. Adams, Lincoln, and Pend Oreille counties all have fewer than 10 dentists. Ferry County did not have a single dentist working there according to 2024 data. Most counties in Washington are federally designated as complete or partial dental health professional shortage areas.
According to the University, 78% of RIDE students go on to practice in rural areas after they graduate.
"At a national level, that rate is about 20 to 25% only. The growth of this program really has the opportunity to be transformational in terms of access to these areas," Ritter said.
The first year of dental is focused on learning fundamentals in a classroom, while the second year focuses on practical skills like fillings, root canals and bridges.
Completing the second year in Spokane was not possible until moving into the new building. The 13,000-square-foot facility within the medical school building includes a dental simulation lab, digital dentistry lab, wet lab, a dispensary for learning how to handle drugs used in dentistry, classrooms and administrative spaces.
There is still room to grow in the current building in Spokane. The simulation lab can accommodate up to 32 students. If the number of students in the RIDE program expands again, the number of clinical sites needed for rotations and residencies would also increase from the approximately 20 dental clinics across the state.
"Future growth of the program will likely be realistic within two-three years," Ritter said. "I see Spokane as really a hub for further growth in the region. A place where students can come in, have all that training here, and then participate in clinical training across the state and region."
The school is negotiating partnerships with nearby rural states to sponsor students into the RIDE program, which would help fund future expansion. Ritter specifically pointed to Montana and Alaska, which also face dentist shortages.
There is also greater demand for the RIDE program among dental students than UW can currently accommodate. Each year, 71 new students are admitted to UW's dental school: 55 on Seattle's campus and 16 for Spokane's RIDE program. Students apply specifically for RIDE after they have been accepted to the medical school as a whole. According to Ritter, approximately half of the most recent cohort of 71 wanted to participate in RIDE. Only 16 of the students were admitted.
That demand may be driven by RIDE's student-to-faculty ratio, according to RIDE Spokane director Cheon Joo Yoon.
"At RIDE, there is three students to every one faculty member. That ratio is hard to find. Elsewhere it is more typically one faculty for every 10 students or even 1 to 20," he said.
Cissne worried he would not have as much one-on-one time with instructors if he was not in the RIDE program.
"We have great faculty to student ratio. We get a lot of attention with our instructors. There's not much waiting around. So if you have a question, you can kind of go get that answer right away," he said.
RIDE students also get a small rotation in between their first and second year, which is not afforded to Seattle students.
"A month is a pretty long time. It helps students develop a relationship with that community. Then in their fourth year they're going back to the same site," Yoon said.
Future expansion of RIDE is dependent on funding from the state Legislature. For now, Ritter is focused on maintaining the current expansion to 16 students in the program.
"I don't think it's certain," Ritter said of future growth. "The most immediate need is to make sure that the current format is sustainable."
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This story was originally published April 24, 2026 at 11:42 PM.