MATC’s Health Pathway is striving to keep up with the rising need for dental professionals. The Dental Clinic is being expanded to provide more room for dental students–hygienists, assistants, and bilingual learners. The layout and general design will stay familiar, but the space is getting an update with modern furniture and equipment meant to last for the next 30 years.

If you walk through the H Building at the Downtown Milwaukee Campus, you can notice a lot of construction taking place on the first floor. MATC is addressing workforce needs by expanding its Dental Programs with a goal of boosting enrollment by 50% to help meet industry demand. This project is funded by a State of Wisconsin appropriation to train additional dental hygienists and assistants.

The construction is currently in Phase 2 of a three-phase project, to expand and update facilities. In Phase 1,  the Health Care Pathway was relocated to the third floor of the H Building, along with the dean’s and pathway advisors’ offices.

In Phase 2, new offices and student lockers are being installed in the space previously occupied by those offices. Phase 3, scheduled for the summer, will bring together and update the dental clinic into one unified space, with all work expected to be completed before the start of the Fall 2026 semester. A new ceiling and flooring will be installed that is more hygienic and easy to clean. There will also be an update in the electrical systems in the dental hygiene area.

For the remainder of this semester, students and staff in the program are being temporarily displaced as construction goes on across the first floor. They put up a temporary wall in a vacated area that will be developed into new clinical space and storage. Once completed, there will be two separate clinics–with 15 chairs in each.

All digital equipment will be located in the clinic. Although some technology was installed three years ago, it still feels like a “new addition” compared to the rest of the clinic’s equipment they would have for 30 years. The new faculty offices have twelve workstations in the main office and eight in the part-time office. The program has about 50 staff members and includes two conference rooms.

The Health Pathway offers programs for Dental Assistants and Dental Hygienists, two careers that are in high demand in Wisconsin and elsewhere.