by: Maddie Aiken
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
maiken@post-gazette.com
View the original story on the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's website >
March 14, 2026
Dr. James Mancini’s workdays are booked solid.
Every day, he drives 180 miles round trip from his home in Robinson to his dental practice in Meadville, where he sees roughly 40 to 50 patients a day.
Dr. Mancini doesn’t mind, though, because he knows he’s providing a vital service to the people of Northwestern Pennsylvania.
His public dental health practice is the only one of its kind in Crawford County. In neighboring Venango County, there isn’t a single public health dental practice, leaving those on public insurance without accessible dental care. If they need a cleaning or filling, they have to drive 45-60 minutes to Dr. Mancini’s office.
This isn’t a rare issue in rural Pennsylvania. More than half of the Keystone State’s 67 counties are designated as dental health professional shortage areas, and just under 18% of the state’s dentists practice in rural areas — falling short of the 26% of Pennsylvanians who live in rural areas.
That’s why Dr. Mancini is optimistic about the University of Pittsburgh’s plan to develop regional training centers focused on dental medicine in Pennsylvania’s rural communities.
Each center will bring three licensed general dentists to a region through a residency program. It will also create homegrown dental hygiene students and dental assistants.
“People like myself and my staff, we're trying to fix this, but the effort that Pitt is putting forward is a fantastic move into or trying to fix this problem,” said Dr. Mancini, a Pitt graduate and the incoming president of the Pennsylvania Dental Association. “These rural centers are a great start.”
Pitt’s new centers will aim to address what school officials call a statewide crisis. In addition to a shortage of dentists in rural areas, there is also a severe lack of hygienists and dental assistants. The departure of one practitioner can debilitate a rural community.
Through the new centers, three recent Pitt graduates who are also licensed general dentists will practice in a rural center for one year. After completion of that yearlong residency, three new licensed general dentists will be funneled into the center.
It’s an innovative and unprecedented model. For years, the state’s dental professionals and health care advocates have tried to attract dentists to rural areas long-term. These efforts have been largely unsuccessful, said Marnie Oakley, dean of Pitt’s School of Dental Medicine.
This new model will guarantee rural areas have three dentists at all times, explained Dr. Oakley. And who knows — the residents could fall in love with their rural community and decide to continue practicing there.
“Essentially, you’re bringing three new dentists to every rural area,” Dr. Oakley said. “...I'm not counting on them to stay. I would love it if they would stay, and I do believe that some of them will… [but] if they leave, my program won’t be broken.”
Through the model, Pitt will also train five dental hygienists and 12 dental assistants each year at every center. These students will take in-person classes in their rural communities with Pitt Dental Medicine faculty members. They’ll also gain clinical training experience at Federally Qualified Health Centers or rural hospital clinics that have partnered with Pitt.
Pitt plans to open its first two centers at its Bradford and Titusville campuses later this year. It’s a “win-win” opportunity for those campuses, said Dr. Oakley. Richard Esch, president of Pitt’s Bradford and Titusville campuses, concurred.
Over the past few months, both campuses have been building out dental clinics that feature simulation labs, Mr. Esch said. Each regional training center has a one-time start-up cost of about $1 million, though Dr. Oakley is confident there will be a return on investment for both rural communities and their residents.
Just recently, Mr. Esch spoke to a Bradford-based dentist who lost his hygienist and hasn’t been able to hire a new one. By offering Pitt degrees and training programs right in rural students’ backyards, Mr. Esch is hopeful this model will offer a career pathway for more rural Pennsylvanians while simultaneously addressing a healthcare need.
The mission of the regional training centers also strongly aligns with the Center for Rural Engagement, a hub for rural education, research and community engagement at Pitt-Bradford and Pitt-Titusville.
“I think [the centers] will have a dramatic impact,” Mr. Esch said. “We have staff members at Pitt Bradford who are driving to Erie — which is about an hour away — for a dental appointment, and it takes a long time to get one.
“The vision is that this is part of a solution to address oral health care in rural communities.”
The lack of dentists, hygienists and dental assistants doesn’t only impact rural Pennsylvanians’ teeth. These shortages also lead to overcrowded emergency rooms and hinder treatment timelines for cardiovascular disease, cancer and osteoporosis, Dr. Mancini said. The few dental practices are also overwhelmed with patients.
“It becomes a house of cards,” said Dr. Mancini, who operated a private practice in Robinson before switching to rural public health about two decades ago.
Since the coronavirus pandemic, Pennsylvania has lost thousands of dentists, hygienists and dental assistants, Dr. Mancini said. These losses have been particularly “dramatic” in rural areas, which were already dropping practitioners and practices prior to the pandemic.
The Salvation Dental Center in Oil City shuttered in 2021, for example. About a decade earlier, a dental center in Bradford closed its doors, said Dr. Mancini.
In Johnstown, a public health practice closed in 2021, leaving the community with only one public practice. A regional training center is “on the horizon” for the Flood City, which also boasts a Pitt campus, said Dr. Oakley.
Dr. Oakley knows about the dental needs of rural Americans firsthand. She grew up in a small town in Northeastern Pennsylvania called Mountain Top. After she graduated from Pitt’s School of Dental Medicine in the early 1990s, she served as a dental officer at Naval Station Great Lakes. There, she quickly discovered that many recruits from rural areas had particular dental needs.
Cognizant of these issues throughout her career, Ms. Oakley hopes Pitt’s model will be successful, sustainable, scalable and affordable. Twenty regional training centers would treat about 100,000 patients per year, she estimates.
“It’s a stepping stone for looking at health care models,” Dr. Oakley said. “Everyone deserves to have access to healthcare, right? It shouldn't be about where you live, and you shouldn't be limited by where you live or how much money you make.”
First Published: March 14, 2026, 4:00 a.m. Updated: March 14, 2026, 10:30 a.m.
Maddie Aiken covers higher education for the Post-Gazette. Previously, she covered education and other community-related topics for the Tribune-Review and The Daily Times in Salisbury, Md.