Pitt Dental expands clinics

The University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine on Tuesday celebrated the opening of its Regional Training Center in Titusville, in partnership with Titusville Area Hospital—the latest move in a multi-site effort by Pitt to address Pennsylvania’s critical shortage of dental professionals.“

Rural communities are feeling the shortage of dentists most acutely, and when people can’t get routine oral health care close to home, small problems go untreated and often end up in the emergency room,” said Marnie Oakley, dean of Pitt's School of Dental Medicine, at the event. “The lack of enough dentists in rural areas is also an economic issue as it makes it difficult to attract businesses and top talent to an area.”

The Titusville center will provide more clinical space, advanced equipment and increased clinical training opportunities that will allow for more area patients to be seen and more complex procedures to be performed.

Pitt’s Dental Medicine centers directly address access and workforce investment gaps by annually hosting three licensed general practice residents who see patients from the community. They also recruit dental hygiene and dental assistant students from the community who take courses virtually and then complete their clinical rotations at the center.

“I am gaining significant experience that will support me in my career while making a real difference, which is an incredibly positive feeling,” said Christiana Mather, a general practice resident with the Titusville center and a recent graduate of the Pitt School of Dental Medicine.

Centers in Titusville and Bradford both opened to patients in July 2026 in partnership with Pitt’s regional campuses in each city.

“In just a short period of time, the centers in Bradford and Titusville have seen over 1,000 patients and developed long waiting lists, which exemplifies the critical need for these services,” said Rick Esch, president of both Pitt-Bradford and Pitt-Titusville. “We have been incredibly pleased to partner with Dean Oakley and her team to strengthen the workforce pipeline and expand dental access across Northwestern Pennsylvania.”  

The Pitt-Bradford and Pitt-Titusville campuses provide prerequisite educational coursework for students in the dental hygiene program while also hosting a simulation lab that prepares students in the hybrid dental hygiene bachelor's degree program for real patient care.

“The collaboration with Pitt Dental [Medicine] and Pitt-Bradford allows us to serve as a teaching clinic, which helps residents and students understand the particular needs of a rural population and hopefully leads more dental professionals to choose to practice in these communities,” said Jaehee Williamson, co-director for the Universal Primary Care Dental Clinic in Bradford, the federally qualified health center partner for the RTC at Bradford.  

Moving forward, Pitt Dental Medicine plans to open a center in Johnstown in July 2027, followed by a center in Huntingdon County in July 2028, with more planned for the future.

This week, Pitt also received more than $9 million in Rural Health Transformation Plan funding from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to support the completion of laboratory space, facility upgrades and equipment purchases at the centers, which will further the services that can be provided as well of the number of patients that can be seen and students that can be trained.

“I am incredibly proud of the progress we have made so far and am looking forward to continuing our growth and impact far into the future,” Oakley said.

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