Lawmakers urged to OK dental-training center
Posted on Tuesday, October 7, 2008
Arkansas would be training dentists in specialized fields as early as 2011 if the state Legislature approves a proposed Center for Dental Education at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences next year.
Training dentists would help alleviate a growing shortage of dental professionals in Arkansas by keeping more of them in the state to practice, said Dr. Charles O. Cranford, a professor at the UAMS College of Public Health and chairman of the state dental study committee.
Arkansas has 40. 3 dentists for every 100, 000 residents. An increase of 70 percent is needed by 2015 to meet the national average of 60 dentists for every 100, 000 people, according to a committee report.
“We’ve got to realize that the problem is approaching,” said Cranford, who presented the committee’s findings Monday to the House and Senate Interim Committees on Public Health, Welfare and Labor. “If we do nothing, it’s going to get much worse.” The report recommends lawmakers designate $ 1 million for 2009-10, and $ 1. 79 million for 2010-11 to create the UAMS center.
If approved, it would offer Arkansas’ first training program for dentists and could serve as a precursor to development of the state’s first dental school.
In addition to starting programs for dental-school graduates, center officials would be charged with doing an in-depth study for the 2011 session into whether Arkansas should have a full-fledged UAMS College of Dentistry.
Dr. Gene Jines, president of the Arkansas State Dental Association, said the study would be presented to legislators during the 2011 session to help them decide if the state needs a dental school, or if there are other options to help meet the need.
“This is just the start of the process,” said Jines, who also served on the study committee.
There are no dentists in Calhoun, Cleveland, Perry and Newton counties. Thirty-two other counties have five dentists or fewer, according to the report.
In many parts of the state, people have to drive 40-50 miles to see a dentist, Jines said.
“The problem is we don’t have enough [dentists ], and the data show that we don’t have enough,” Cranford said.
Rep. Mike Burris, D-Malvern, said he would have to see the cost of opening a dental school compared with what the state spends to send students to dental schools in other states.
Arkansas has never had a dental school. Instead, the state has special agreements to send students to eight dental schools in seven states. Those agreements produce about 30 graduates a year.
The state is paying $ 1. 45 million this year for the 97 Arkansans now enrolled in other schools through those agreements.
If legislators approve a dental school in 2011, Arkansas wouldn’t have its first dental school graduates until at least 2017, Cranford said.
Rep. Billy Gaskill, D-Paragould, said the state needs to respond to the demand for more dentists. More and more people are realizing that poor oral health can be linked to other health problems. As a dentist, Gaskill said he has seen people who delay dental care for so long they develop oral cancers, which can be fatal.
“Dentistry has come out of the darkness, and we’re one of the real big health professions now,” Gaskill said.
Arkansas is one of 16 states that doesn’t have a dental school, and one of three states of more than 2. 5 million people without one.
If the 87 th General Assembly approves $ 2. 7 million for the Center for Dental Education, Cranford said it would take at least two years to get the first residency programs in place.
The report recommends post-graduate programs in three specialties at UAMS Medical Center and Arkansas Children’s Hospital. Those would be a pediatric dentistry residency program, a hospital-based general practice residency program, and an oral and maxillofacial surgery residency.
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