By Gillian Graham

Staff Writer

The Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee this week unanimously endorsed a proposal that would bring a dental school to the University of New England.

The $7 million bond proposal must now be approved by the full Legislature before it goes to a public vote in November. If passed, $5 million will go to the University of New England to establish the state’s first dental school and $2 million will be used to outfit clinics with equipment and staff.

University of New England President Danielle Ripich said Maine, Vermont and New Hampshire comprise the largest geographic area in the country without a dental school.

“The oral health needs of the state are really acute and becoming more so each year,” she said. “The problem is only going to become more acute if we don’t create a way to educate dentists in Maine and New England.”

Emergency departments in Maine hospitals report 12,000 patient visits annually for people seeking relief from dental pain and infection. That, coupled with 40 percent of dentists facing retirement, puts access to dental care at a “critical” point for the state, Ripich said.

The university conducted a two-year feasibility study to look at a variety of dental school models. Ripich said a distributed dental school model – with classes on campus and internships at outside clinics – makes the most sense for Maine and the university’s goal of educating students in the community. About two-thirds of the school’s medical students stay in the state after completing residencies.

Forty dental students per class would be located on university’s Portland and Biddeford campuses for the first three years, followed by six- to 12-month clinical internship in nonprofit, community-based dental clinics across the state. Ripich said she conservatively estimates this model will provide a minimum of 60,000 new patient care visits each year.

“The low-cost care we could provide and the 60,000 dental visits each year, this changes people’s lives,” she said.

Kneka Smith, associate dean for planning at the university, said there currently are 15 dental clinics statewide, some with very long waiting lists of patients. The school is in talks with clinics to see what renovations and modifications would be needed to accept dental students as early as spring 2015. Clinics will apply for money from the $2 million of the bond to make needed modifications such as adding more dental chairs, she said.

The exact number of clinics dental students will work with will not be decided until the dental school is established, Smith said. The clinics will be spread across the state and likely include Aroostook and Washington counties.

Ripich said establishing a dental school will cost between $17 million and $20 million. The university has about $10 million in resources to contribute to startup costs but a “relatively modest” investment by the state will allow the school to become a reality, she said.

“With that investment, Maine would have a supply of dentists in perpetuity,” she said. “I think people understand it’s important and in the long term it’s a good return on the investment.”

The university has been accepting private pledges for the dental school for the past year and a half, Ripich said. Major donations include a $2 million pledge from Delta Dental Northeast.

If the bond is approved by voters, Ripich said the school could begin educating dental students in 2012 in existing labs in Biddeford and classroom and office space in Portland. During the two years of construction, the economic impact will be nearly $38 million with jobs in construction, manufacturing, trade and transportation. That would be followed by an annual economic impact of $35 million for the state economy from faculty, staff, students and housing, she said.

Sen. Richard Nass (R-Acton) and Sen. Jon Courtney (R-Springvale) said the dental school and clinics are needed to better serve the state’s dental health needs.

“The prospect of having a dental school in southern Maine is exciting. We have long been unable to attract new dentists, at least in part due to our very low Medicaid reimbursement rates for dental work,” Nass said in a press release. “All too often our young people leave the state for school and they never return. A dental school will help keep young professionals in Maine.”

Courtney said many parts of the state are underserved and the bond will allow increased access to dental care.

“With almost half of our dentists approaching retirement age, it is critical that we attract and keep new dentists,” he said.

Maine Dental Association Executive Director Frances Miliano said the group has been supportive of the concept of creating a dental school in Maine but has no official position on the bond proposal. Individual members will need to decide if they support using public money for a private school, she said.

“We think this would be a good pipeline for new dentists coming into Maine,” she said. “We want to make sure there’s an adequate number of dentists in the workforce.” 
Miliano said there is a “big bubble” of dentists in Maine who are expected to retire in the next 10 years. Drawing new dentists into Maine – especially into rural areas – can be difficult, she said.

“We’re hopeful the model we’ve heard described through UNE of placing dental students in rural areas will get them interested in staying in those areas,” Miliano said.

Staff Writer Gillian Graham can be reached at 282-4337, ext. 213.