Administrators at the University of Utah cut the ribbon on the brand new oral health building today and it will do more than just train dentists.
The journey to open the new School of Dentistry and construct the 85 thousand square foot building to house it, has taken years, if not decades, of hard work. Amber Clark is a 2nd year student at the School of Dentistry. She says she’s excited about what the new building has to offer.
“It’s phenomenal. It’s amazing," she says. "It’s just really great to have our own space for once just because for the past year and a half we had to share space with the medical students. And in that building you have lots of traffic coming in from undergrads, graduate students, and other health sciences areas as well. So, it’s really nice to have a place that we can call home now.”
The building was funded almost entirely by a $30 million donation from the Ray and Tye Noorda Foundation. Glen Hanson is the interim dean of the school of dentistry. He says because of that donation the school is completely without debt.
“So, without having that burden on us we are able to be flexible," he says. "And that’s one of the reasons why we can target this patient population that typically doesn’t have the means, the economic means, to get oral care.”
The building is equipped with classrooms, an auditorium, laboratory areas, and a main clinic with 62 chairs.