Approving a $5 million bond issue for instructional clinics on April 12, the Maine Legislature moved the University of New England a step closer toward opening the state's first dental school.
"This is a critically important funding source for the university to be able to open a dental school," said Kneka Smith, M.P.H., associate dean for planning.
If voters approve the bond issue in November, the money will fund rural clinics where fourth-year students will spend 95% of their time. The unusual community-based approach, based on one pioneered by the A.T. Still University in Arizona, aims to produce dentists committed to public service.
A new clinic would be funded with $3.5 million, and the other $1.5 million would be divided among existing clinics. Faculty from the university would oversee the students practicing at the clinics. Technically, the money is not set aside for the University of New England, but the legislation is written in such a way that it would be difficult for anyone else to compete for it.
Smith estimates that the university needs about $12 million to start a dental school by its target date of 2012. It has already raised almost $6 million from private sources, such as Northeast Delta.
As in most of the U.S., Maine's poorest residents and those living in remote rural areas have trouble getting dental care. The situation is becoming particularly grave in Maine, however, because the dentists there have the oldest average age in the country, Smith said. In the next decade, 41% of the state's dentists will reach retirement age, she said.
Currently, the closest dental schools are in Boston and Nova Scotia. The University of New England already runs a medical school that supplies a quarter of Maine's rural physicians.
In addition to sending dental students to public health clinics for their fourth year, the university plans to recruit students from underserved populations and look for applicants who have demonstrated a commitment to public health.
Using these approaches, A.T. Still has produced especially public-minded classes, Smith said; a third of its graduates take jobs in public health.
"There is a national trend toward moving dental students outside the walls of dental schools," she said.
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