The Wiregrass Alabama AHEC is using its ongoing Pathways to Smiles initiative to introduce rural high school students to rewarding careers in oral health. This project to recruit future dental health providers comes as Alabama ranks No. 49 in access to dental care.

Earlier this fall, 17 students from Abbeville and Headland High Schools learned about oral hygiene and discussed dental career pathways—from dental assistant to dentist. Most recently, 30 students from Lowndes County participated in a hands-on dental exploration event, hosted in partnership with UAB Dentistry Dothan’s Amy Cooper and Ashanty Rivers, and Bennett Tucker, DMD, of East Central Alabama AHEC.

This nation-wide program by the American Dental Education Association (ADEA) and Area Health Education Centers (AHEC) aims to inspire high school students to pursue careers in oral health, especially in under-resourced areas. The program offers hands-on, interactive learning about the oral health profession, the importance of oral health, and the academic path to these careers

Students attending Pathways to Smiles events engage in a variety of interactive learning stations, including soap carving, dental model crafting, infection control demonstrations, and typodont scaling—activities that brought the world of dentistry to life. They also mapped out Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs) to better understand the gaps in rural health care access and the importance of serving their own communities.

The Alabama AHEC Network, housed within the Department of Family and Community Medicine, supports a variety of robust educational programs designed to recruit Alabama students, train them in high-need communities, and encourage them to stay and serve. AHEC’s Healthcare Pathways Programs support high school and college students interested in health care professions. In the past year, Pathways Programs delivered more than 36,700 contact hours of programming and reached 8,640+ students, with 51 students completing their CNA.

Through these immersive events, AHEC is inspiring the next generation of students to build healthier futures—right where they’re needed most.