The Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine (LECOM) plans to open a dental school with the help of a $1 million grant from the Redevelopment Assistance Capital Program of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
LECOM has identified a critical need to attract more dentists to Erie and Pennsylvania, the school said in a press release. According to public health records, more than 46,000 Erie County residents go without dental care.
The school will attract 100 students per class year to the community and involve construction of new, high-tech educational facilities to accommodate these students. LECOM will invest $37 million to $47 million to plan and construct the dental school on the main campus. It would be the fourth dental school in the state.
LECOM projects the school to be finished in 2012 and the first dental students from the new school will matriculate in 2015. The college also has begun planning for a dental school at its Bradenton, FL, campus, that would open in 2012.
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