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New dental school for East Carolina

Posted Sept. 6, 2007

By Karen Fox

Greenville, N.C.-North Carolina has registered its support for a collaboration between EastCarolinaUniversity and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill on serving the needs of the state's citizens, which includes establishing a new dental school at ECU.

Gov. Mike Easley signed a budget bill Aug. 1 that gives ECU $25 million to begin dental school construction and $1 million for operating costs. An additional $25 million was allocated to UNC-Chapel Hill for expansion.

Groundbreaking for a 112,500-square-foot facility on East Carolina University's campus could take place this fall. The ECUSchool of Dentistry plans to open its doors to a class of 50 students in 2011, said Dr. Greg Chadwick, ECU associate vice chancellor for oral health and interim dean.

"We are delighted with the state's commitment to dental education," said Dr.
Chadwick, who is also an ADA past president. "We're a state university striving to keep tuition low for our students. With less educational debt, graduates are more likely to pursue practice in rural and remote areas of the state, where there is a dire need for oral health care services."

With a focus on primary care and residencies in pediatric dentistry and advanced education in general dentistry, the ECUSchool of Dentistry will serve patients who have limited access to care and increase the number of underrepresented minority dentists in the state.

North Carolina ranks 47th out of 50 states in the number of dentists per capita. In rural areas, there are just three dentists for every 10,000 people, compared to urban areas where the ratio is nearly five to 10,000.
There are four counties in the northeastern part of the state that have no dentists at all, and only 13 percent of the state's dentists are minorities (compared with 34 percent of North Carolinians).

Right now ECU is planning to have 8 to 10 service learning centers where dental students and residents will receive academic and clinical training.

The state budget bill also included $25 million in capital funds for the University of North Carolina at Chapel HillSchool of Dentistry for the planning, site development and early construction of its DentalSciencesBuilding, which is estimated to be a $125 million project that will expand the dental school class size by 20 percent.

"The state of North Carolina has shown a tremendous commitment to dental education and the creation of new knowledge in the field of oral health, for which I am very grateful," said Dr. John N. Williams, dean of the UNC dental school. "The joint plan for dentistry in North Carolina addresses education, research and other crucial factors in advancing access to oral health care.

The UNC-ChapelHillSchool of Dentistry's role includes our new DentalSciencesBuilding, which will ensure that we have state-of-the-art instructional technology and space to support our educational mission, as well as cutting-edge laboratory space to support research discoveries."

With operating funds in place, the ECU dental school will now begin the search for an associate dean for academic affairs, associate dean for finance/operations and a director of the school's service learning centers.

Dr. Chadwick said the service learning centers will provide additional opportunities for research, which fits well with the objective in ECU's strategic plan to double research productivity over the next five years.

Celebrating its centennial this year, ECU has become the fastest growing school in the state university system with an enrollment of more than 23,000 students.

The ECUSchool of Dentistry becomes the first new public dental school since the University of Nevada Las Vegas School of Dental Medicine opened in 2002.