East Tennessee State University (ETSU) in Johnson City is considering adding a school of dentistry to its division of health sciences, according to a story in the Johnson City Press.
"We have all the other colleges that are normally in place for a division of health sciences," ETSU President Paul Stanton Jr., M.D., told the paper. "This [dentistry school] would round out and complete, the best I can imagine, a division of health sciences."
ETSU's health sciences division currently has a College of Nursing, College of Medicine, College of Pharmacy, College of Public Health, and College of Clinical and Rehabilitative Health Sciences.
The school expects to form a task force this week to discuss whether there is sufficient need for a dental school and what the cost to build and staff it might be. School officials are hoping some area dentists will be part of this task force, according to the story.
ETSU has already sought the approval of the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and the Tennessee Board of Regents to analyze the dental school possibility.
The nearest dental school to ETSU is the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Tennessee already has two other dental programs, one at Meharry Medical College near Nashville and one at the University of Tennessee in Memphis.
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