In the 56 years since alumnus Andrew Trout’s family began practicing dentistry in St. Joseph, Missouri, he’s seen firsthand a growing scarcity of care, resulting in almost half the amount of practicing dentists there now compared to 1970.
“Outside of St. Joseph, there are almost no other dentists in northwest Missouri,” said Trout (DDS ’95), a St. Joseph city councilman since 2022. “I don’t know anyone in private practice in the surrounding towns. People are traveling all the way to Leavenworth, Kansas, for care.”
The UMKC School of Dentistry is leading the charge to address these dental deserts. Pending funding and approval by the Commission on Dental Accreditation, a proposed expansion in St. Joseph would serve northwest Missouri and join more than 30 active student rotation sites across Missouri and Kansas that help meet the oral healthcare needs of the region.
More than half the counties that make up Missouri do not have enough dentists or hygienists to serve their population. In fact, 81 counties in the state are federally designated as Healthcare Provider Shortage Areas (HPSA) specific to oral health. In neighboring Kansas, 20 such counties carry that designation. Across both rural and urban areas, there is a dire need for dental care.
UMKC’s dental student rotation sites cover a variety of different environments — including a clinic in the heart of downtown Kansas City, Missouri, a clinic in the rural community of Hays, Kansas, and an Army base just outside Junction City, Kansas. In the 2025-26 school year alone, UMKC dental students treated more than 4,000 patients and provided nearly $650,000 worth of services across all rotation sites.
Expanding in Northwest Missouri
The school’s proposed expansion to northwest Missouri in St. Joseph would enable it to reach even more people in need. To Trout’s point, most counties in that region have less than one oral healthcare provider for every 2,100 residents.
Under the proposed program in St. Joseph, fourth-year dental students, senior dental hygiene students and residents in the school’s advanced education in general dentistry (AEGD) program would provide direct patient care while building the rural workforce pipeline.
According to Trout, the area is primed for dental education. The American Dental Association cites just 18 dentists in the St. Joseph area currently. When Trout started practicing in St. Joseph in 1995, that number was 28. When his late father James (DDS ’59) began his career, it was 32.
His father and late mother, Judith Trout (BSDH ’58), ran a dental hygiene school at Hillyard Technical Center in St. Joseph from roughly 2005 to 2015. When it shut its doors, the dental hygiene field still had plenty of interest from potential students, but Trout’s parents had trouble filling academic leadership positions.
“My father was very focused on education,” Trout said. “To have a UMKC satellite campus in St. Joseph would be his dream.”
Trout, who retired from dentistry in 2016, hopes an expansion will address the need in St. Joseph while also drawing in college students from other rural areas who want to work in a similar environment.
“I think it’s the best thing in the world for people across the state who aren’t from the major metropolitan areas,” Trout said. "It will be an absolutely bright light for St. Joe.”
According to School of Dentistry Dean Paul Luepke, the school’s goal is to establish additional ways to help meet shortages.
“A St. Joseph expansion will enable us to add more rotation sites in northwest Missouri and beyond,” Luepke said.
Students Meet the Need
The St. Joseph program would build on efforts the school already has in place to meet shortages. UMKC works to attract dental students who are already comfortable in those environments, like third-year dental student Jenna Romme, who is focusing on rural care.
Next fall, Romme will begin a rotation at First Care Clinic in her hometown of Hays, Kansas. She is following her brother, Nathan Romme (DDS ’24), who also had a rotation in Hays and stayed there to start his career. The duo hopes to eventually practice in their hometown together, and this rotation will allow Jenna to get an idea of what her future might look like.
“I’m able to see what it will be like when I graduate, since these will be the people I’ll be working on all the time, so I like that,” Romme said. “And when I come back to school after my rotation, I’ll have a better understanding of what I need to work on to treat a rural population.”
Romme believes the rotation will allow her to improve her speed and accomplish more in each appointment, saving patients the need for multiple trips. She’s thrilled to begin taking care of the community that’s done so much for her.
“I love small town vibes, how it feels like everyone knows each other,” Romme said. “They are always there for you and ready to help out one another.”
Rural areas aren't the only underserved places UMKC School of Dentistry aims to serve. Students and alumni work at the Seton Center, a community health center in downtown Kansas City, where the need for dental care is also great.
As a recent graduate, Michelle Bui (DDS ’26) is making some big decisions about her future. She was considering private practice or a DSO, but the weekend before she was set to sign a contract, her public health professor, Shelly Howard, BSDH, told the class Seton Center needed a new dentist. Having already completed a dental rotation at Seton, Bui knew it was the place for her. Seton Center runs one of the largest safety net dental clinics in the region, treating underserved populations in the Kansas City urban core.
“I jumped on that opportunity so fast,” Bui said. “I worked well with the doctors there, and got along great with the assistants and hygienists. I’m really excited for the opportunity to come back and pick things up where I left off.”
Public health is a passion for Bui. She’s worked and volunteered in public health offices throughout high school and college, and she credits the School of Dentistry for integrating public health early on in her education. Early in her first year, she was already performing screenings and offering oral health education to elementary students.
Bui is also a first-generation dentist, so the generous loan forgiveness program offered by Seton is a major benefit. But the people are what truly made her want to return, especially dentists like Andrew Thompkins (DDS ’24). Bui said Thompkins is always willing to take the time to teach after each appointment.
“I was really lucky Dr. Thompkins was supportive,” Bui said. “He helped me get my feet wet with endodontics on that rotation.”
Public health is a calling for Thompkins as well. Growing up in northwest Arkansas, he noticed the health disparities in his own community and became acutely aware of how things like missing teeth or mouth pain can pose a barrier for people.
“When it comes to teeth, a lot can ride on your smile,” Thompkins said.
Thompkins is leaving Seton for another public health position in St. Paul, Minnesota, but there is more help from UMKC on the way. Michael Florez (DDS ’16) recently transitioned from private practice to working full-time at Seton Center.
“It’s probably the best decision of my career,” Florez said. “I feel like I’m making a difference in people’s lives, and it feels very rewarding each day.”
Both Florez and Thompkins credit the students on rotation for enabling them to do more for their patients. With a student assisting, they have more bandwidth for same-day emergency appointments. That can be critical for Seton’s patients, who may have limited time away from work or are coming from significant distances.
Even military bases are considered underserved in some areas, and UMKC has stepped up there as well.
When it came to his time at UMKC, recent dental grad Timothy Nguyen’s (DDS ’26) plan was to maximize the opportunities presented to him. He refereed intramural sports, was a digital denture teacher’s assistant at the School of Dentistry and had already finished one dental rotation at Samuel U. Rogers Health Center in downtown Kansas City.
Nguyen was content with that being his only rotation until a unique opportunity presented itself at Fort Riley — a major army base in north central Kansas, near Junction City, where UMKC established a rotation site this past spring. Nguyen, who was the first and only student at the site this year, spent the last few weeks before graduation at the base. The site will continue offering rotation opportunities next year.
According to Luepke, the Fort Riley site has three state-of-the-art dental treatment facilities, but only five dentists to serve about 14,000 active duty service members.
Nguyen, originally from Lee’s Summit, Missouri, was intrigued by an opportunity further from home. He hoped being 2.5 hours away would cultivate more independence. And as the guinea pig for the new program, he welcomed the challenge.
“I’m ready to embrace being comfortable in the uncomfortable,” he said, ahead of the rotation. “I’m looking forward to gaining different pearls of wisdom from the other providers and figuring out what I can utilize in my career.”