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John Ewing/Staff PhotographerNATION: One dentist for every 1,656 patients.
MAINE: One dentist for every 2,165 patients.
Officials said the dental school would cost an estimated $17 million to build on UNE's Portland campus -- tens of millions less than dental schools proposed in other parts of the country. But the private university still needs investors and foundations to be partners in the plan before it can move forward.
"I think people know that oral health is a huge health care issue in Maine, so we're hoping we find some support for this idea," said UNE President Danielle Ripich.
In Maine, there was one dentist for every 2,165 patients in 2002, compared with the national average of one dentist for every 1,656 patients.
Many patients in the state's poorer and rural communities are on long waiting lists for dental appointments, and some travel more than an hour to see a dentist who will accept the state Medicaid program.
Most of Maine's dentists are either turning away Medicaid patients or refusing to take new ones because the state reimburses dentists for less than half of what they charge.
Ripich said UNE's dental school could turn out as many as 50 dentists a year, some of whom could work in underserved areas.
Some dentists are skeptical that graduates would venture far from coastal and southern Maine, where most of the state's 590 dentists are now concentrated. Ripich said the plan is to expose dental students to other parts of the state by assigning them to clinical sites through partnerships with hospitals or dental practices across Maine.
"As they work in more rural parts, they will hopefully stay there," Ripich said.
Dr. Mark Zajkowski, an oral surgeon in South Portland and president of the Maine Dental Association, said he welcomes UNE's interest in starting a dental school, but questions whether there is a need.
He said there are four strong dental schools in New England -- at Harvard University, Tufts University and Boston University in Massachusetts, and the University of Connecticut -- and a dental program at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Dalhousie sets aside as many as six slots for Maine students, which Zajkowski said are not always filled.
Zajkowski said a new school may also face a challenge in finding teachers -- pay is much higher in private practice -- and the millions of dollars it takes to buy and operate equipment. And he questioned whether graduates would want to practice in rural locations if the Medicaid reimbursement rate stays the same.
"Until the state puts its money where its mouth is, you can put a dental school in northern Maine tomorrow and you're going to have the same problems when the students graduate," he said.
The consideration of a dental school comes at a time of rapid expansion for UNE.
Last month it broke ground on a $6 million laboratory building as part of its plan to become a biomedical research center. And the first class of its pharmacy school will arrive in 2009.
The university now has Maine's only medical school and the only programs for dental hygienists, nurse anesthetists and physician assistants.
Ripich said UNE decided this is the time to talk about opening a dental school because the university is enjoying record enrollment and retention rates, and its best-ever financial health.
"It's almost a responsibility to look at it at this point," Ripich said.
Nationwide, applications to dental schools are up and there is renewed interest in building facilities. A $50 million school is planned in Arizona and an $87 million school is going up in North Carolina.
Ripich said UNE's dental school would not cost as much to operate because a strong science curriculum is already in place for its other programs. The dental school...
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