The Dental Hub Grant program is a collaborative public/private initiative designed to increase the capacity of the state’s dental safety net, which serves uninsured and underinsured Kansans.

The primary purpose of this grant program is to increase the capacity of the Kansas dental safety net by increasing access to care, using a dental hub and spoke model.

Dental Hub - A dental hub is the primary location of the applicant’s dental program, and must include:

• A team-based approach to providing care that includes (at a minimum) two full-time dentists, one dental assistant and one dental hygienist in-house, plus an Extended Care Permit (ECP) dental hygienist to provide services in off-site locations.
• A regional vision and approach for providing care;
• An integration of medical and dental services.

Dental Spoke - A dental spoke is a secondary service site(s), located apart from the hub and must include, at a minimum, the services of an Extended Care Permit (ECP) dental hygienist, to provide screenings and referrals back to the hub. Two different types of spoke operations are anticipated: fixed satellite and portable. A fixed satellite is set up to function as a permanent clinical facility, full or part-time, in a separate location. The other model utilizes a portable unit, carried to the site by the provider. Services may include, but are not limited to, the following:

• Screening services in neighboring communities and/or counties in rural areas or to new unserved  populations within the main service county in urban areas
• School screenings
• Nursing home/long-term care facility screenings
• Other services as allowed by Kansas law

Specifically, the objectives of this grant program are to:

• Provide services targeting low-income individuals in geographic areas of the state without access to services. This approach must target rural areas, and:

• Provide services for new, underserved populations in existing service areas. This approach may be used in urban areas only.

The Dental Hub funding is not designed to support the entirety of the dental expansion project. Rather, it is intended to serve as ‘start-up’ money to establish projects that are sustainable over time.

For a map of existing Safety Net Dental Clinic, Dental Hubs and Spokes click here.

For more information please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it