Renovated ISU Family Dentistry clinic christened in Boise

Some 60 state lawmakers, university officials and community leaders toured the recently renovated Idaho State University Family Dentistry clinic during an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony recently in Boise.

“You’ve heard it said that ‘it takes a village to raise a child,’ ” said Dr. Linda Hatzenbuehler, dean of the Kasiska College of Health Professions. “Well, it takes a village to start a program,” she said minutes before she and ISU President Arthur Vailas cut the ribbon, commemorating the clinic’s official grand opening.

The president and Hatzenbuehler were joined by special guest Dr. Steven Friedrichsen, the former chair of ISU’s dental sciences department; Boise clinic site director Dr. Pam Powell; and Dr. Brian Crawford, current dental sciences department chair and director of the Idaho Advanced Dental Residency Program.

The Boise clinic and dental residency program are “examples of ISU overcoming the regionality of the state,” Vailas said. They prove that medical education in Idaho is “not a dream, but a reality,” he added.

Clinic renovations total 2,200 square feet and include two new treatment rooms, office space for residents and a distance-learning conference room. ISU dedicated the classroom to Friedrichsen, who was instrumental in starting ISU’s dental residency program, chaired the department for 22 years and served as director of the Idaho Dental Education Program.

In 2005, Friedrichsen left ISU to become dean of Creighton University Medical Center’s School of Dentistry in Omaha, Neb.