The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) has opened a new Center for Dental Education, featuring an oral health clinic and postgraduate programs for students in advanced general dentistry and oral surgery.
Arkansas is one of three states with a population greater than 2.5 million that lacks a college of dentistry.
Slated to begin accepting patients next year, the clinic will share facilities with the UAMS Dental Hygiene Clinic. It will also offer continuing education programs in collaboration with the Arkansas State Dental Association.
Charles Cranford, DDS, was selected as the director of the new center. Keith David Stillwell, DDS, has served as associate director of general practice residency at the University of Alabama-Birmingham and will direct the clinical program. He and one other dentist will serve patients in five treatment rooms at the clinic.
The school is intended to help address access-to-care issues Arkansas is grappling with. A 2003 study found that 31% of 7,000 third-graders in Arkansas public schools had untreated caries, highlighting the need for greater access to care, the university noted in a press release. A 2008 report ranked the state last for the ratio of dentists per 100,000 residents and more than half of those dentists are older than age 50.
The Center for Dental Education could be the groundwork needed to open a college of dentistry at UAMS, according to Dr. Cranford.
