Dental College fills the gap

UCF students will soon have a lot more to smile about.

The Board of Trustees voted on Thursday to approve a newly proposed program, Doctor of Dental Medicine, as well as the College of Dental Medicine which would be located right next to the College of Medicine at Lake Nona.

According to Zenaida Kotala of UCF News & Info, the program and college proposal must be reviewed by the Florida Board of Governors, which oversees the state university system before plans can move forward, later this summer.

Kotala says serious discussion and planning for the college began in 2009.

If approved, the College of Dental Medicine would open in 2014, according to a promotional brochure provided by the College of Medicine. The initial class would consist of 60 students and would eventually increase to about 100 students with the annual tuition cost of $50,000 to $60,000. According to the brochure, the college would create at least 110 educational jobs and would contribute $69 million to the Central Florida economy.

According to the brochure, the construction of a Dental Education building is valued at $42.8 million. The funding for the building would come from a $10 million anonymous donor and a $40 million start-up loan.

Another benefit of the Dental College would be greater access to dental health care for citizens in the community. The Dental College will include a 200-chair Primary Dental Care Clinic where dental students can develop their skills under the supervision of instructors. The clinic would provide affordable dental care to citizens in the community as well as a hands-on learning environment for students.

"I think the College of Dental Medicine is a fantastic program for UCF and for the community," Assistant Vice President of UCF News & Info Grant Heston said. "It addresses a need for producing more dentists in our state, it's going to create jobs…and it's going to address, as part of its curriculum, providing care for the traditionally underserved."

According to the brochure, the Dental College is estimated to graduate about 100 dentists annually with salaries averaging $103,000.

"At the end of the day, you want to produce graduates, who when they go and start their dental practices, have this background of serving this population that's part of who they are," Heston said.

Senior health sciences major Gardette Hutton said she heard about UCF's plan to build a dental school shortly after spring finals had commenced.

Hutton is hoping to attend dental school in Fall 2012 elsewhere since the UCF Dental College will not be open until 2014.

"I would have loved to attend dental school at UCF over anywhere else. It is a pity that it is opening so late," Hutton said.

The proposed Dental College would be one of 62 fully-accredited dental colleges in the nation. As of now, there are only two accredited dental colleges in Florida, the University of Florida College of Dentistry and the Nova Southeastern University College of Dental Medicine.

SGA President Matthew McCann, who sits on the Board of Trustees, sees the Dental College as a great way to make UCF known in the state of Florida.

"This is a great way to expand UCF's influence within the state and really provide students from UCF another way to further their education within the community and the college that they love. It's really cool. It's a neat opportunity and I'm excited to see where it goes," he said.