Texas Tech University has received a $25 million gift for its new dental school in El Paso.
The gift from the Woody and Gayle Hunt Family Foundation will fund the state's fourth dental school, the Woody L. Hunt School of Dental Medicine, according to the university.
El Paso County has a severe lack of dentists and has been classified as a dental health professional shortage area. The county only has about 170 dentists serving nearly 860,000 people, according to state health officials.
Between 2007 and 2011, only 13 graduates of the other three dental schools in the state began practicing in El Paso.
