V
irginia
C
apitol
C
onnections
, W
inter
2014
22
I
t’s the middle of the night. Your head is pounding. You notice in
the mirror that your face is beginning to swell. That pesky tooth
that you have been meaning to get checked has given you one
heck of a wakeup call. Now to find a dentist…. For most of us reading
this article that is probably not an issue. But what if you live in a rural
part of Virginia?What if you live in Central Appalachia?What if you
have a limited income? All of a sudden, your options are severely
limited.
This problem of finding a dentist is what many people inVirginia,
in certain urban areas but particularly in Southwest and Southside
Virginia, face on a daily basis. Availability of affordable dental care,
not just to extract that pesky tooth, but to have comprehensive dental
treatment at more affordable fees is not easy in a region where the
dentist to population ratio is half the national average and over half
the dentists in the region are 55 years of age or older. This problem is
illustrated by the fact that the region has among the worst oral health
statistics in the nation. That is where Bluefield College’s proposed
School of Dental Medicine enters the picture.
A joint public-private partnership between Bluefield College and
Tazewell County, the proposed School of Dental Medicine is poised
Addressing the Need:
Bluefield College’s Proposed New Dental School
to provide care at more affordable levels, train the next generation of
dentists for Central Appalachia, and help to improve the oral health
of rural Virginians, and as a result their general health as well. In
addition, the school will provide an engine for economic growth
with new jobs in the school, construction of the school and new
residential facilities for the students faculty, and staff, the training of
260 students when fully operational with money to spend locally, and
improvements in appearance so that people will be more competitive
when applying for new jobs. One study has the annual impact at $13
million to the local economy.
Starting a new dental school anywhere, but particularly in
Southwest Virginia, is a daunting challenge. Dental education is the
most expensive program in higher education. The reasons for this
are that a dental school is not just classrooms and labs, but actually
a “dental hospital” with much of the infrastructure that drives up
the cost of these facilities. Unlike medical students, dental students
provide all of the care for their patients under the direct and close
supervision of faculty. The early parts of this clinical training during
the students’ second and third years will occur at the proposed $40
million dental school building to be located at Tazewell County’s
Jim Spencer, Administrator, Tazewell County shows the site of the
proposed dental school.
The Arizona School of Dentistry and Oral Health --- an example of the dental school lab.
