Bulletin of Dental Education Article

By Spaine Stephens

Once a month, the post office building on Main Street in Swan Quarter, NC, also serves as the area’s only oral health care location for miles around.

The East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine’s (ECU SoDM) Hyde County Outreach Clinic, which occupies a few rooms in the rear of the small brick post office building, provides much-needed dental care to residents from Hyde and surrounding rural counties. The Hyde County Outreach Clinic has made the most of high-tech dental education and small-town ingenuity since opening its doors in April 2022. Today, close to 200 patients have received care through the collaboration.

The ECU School of Dental Medicine’s Hyde County Outreach Clinic operates in a former Zumba studio at the rear of the post office building in Swan Quarter, North Carolina. (Credit: ECU Photos)

Set up with a check-in area at the front door and private, partitioned treatment spaces, the Hyde County Outreach Clinic can provide care for 16 patients per monthly visit, on average.

“Our books are full every day from start to finish, and our students are getting tremendous experience,” said T. Rob Tempel, Jr., D.D.S., M.S.S., who helped create and run the clinic. Dr. Tempel retired in May 2025, and clinic operations are being handed over to faculty members Daniel Boden, D.M.D., and David MacPherson, D.D.S., M.Sc., CD, FAGD, ABGD—another clinic founder.

Hyde County, which connects to Beaufort County to the west and reaches into a pocket of the Atlantic Ocean cradled by North Carolina’s Barrier Islands, joins Gates, Jones and Tyrell counties as the only four of North Carolina’s 100 counties with no practicing dentists.

The program’s partners include the Hyde County Health Department, Hyde County government and the County Commissioners, Ocracoke Health Center and Engelhard Medical Center, among others.

“We want the people of Hyde County and nearby areas to know we are there to help if they need us and to trust us to provide them with quality care,” said D. Gregory Chadwick, D.D.S., M.S., Dean of ECU SoDM.

Sydney Lewis (Class of 2025) cared for patients at the Hyde County Outreach Clinic as part of her fourth-year rotations. (Credit: Photo courtesy of PBS North Carolina)

In 2019, the Anonymous Trust—a philanthropic group that aims to support rural and underserved communities—provided ECU SoDM a grant award of $144,000 for portable dental equipment and personnel to launch the Hyde County Outreach Clinic.

In December 2022, the Hearst Foundations—national philanthropic resources for organizations working in the fields of culture, education, health and social services—approved funding in the amount of $100,000 for the school to provide dental care to underserved, uninsured and low-income rural patients. The clinic, like the dental school’s facilities on campus and across the state, accepts Medicaid—another obstacle that keeps many patients from receiving care.

ECU SoDM dental students are also taking in the experiences the clinic offers. Fourth-year students spend nine weeks in all three of the school’s eight community service learning centers (CSLCs) situated across the state for 27 weeks of rigorous clinical experience. They provide care in Hyde County as part of their rotation in Ross Hall on campus.

From left to right: Rebecca Sutton (Class of 2025), 2024 Resident Dr. Cherina Belton (AEGD 2025) and Markus Mosley (Class of 2025) worked to secure network connections as they cared for patients at the Hyde County Outreach Clinic last year. (Credit: Photo by Spaine Stephens)

“Engaging with the local community helps students understand the importance of building trust and rapport with patients,” said Markus Mosley, a member of the ECU SoDM’s Class of 2025. “Participating in community-oriented, service-learning projects helps students recognize the broader social determinants of health and the importance of public health initiatives.”

Part of the Hyde County clinic’s success comes from the unique model of the ECU SoDM itself, with the CSLCs providing students unprecedented clinical experiences and helping them understand health disparities in each unique community.

“Providers and schools across the nation are looking at what we’re doing and seeing the creative ways to help people in rural America,” Dr. Tempel said. “The school and university are reaching out to rural communities and providing innovative solutions to very challenging problems.”

Courtesy of East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine

Published on July 9, 2025