PORTLAND, Maine — For over a decade, Maine oral health stakeholders and concerned residents have been developing a comprehensive plan to respond to the dramatic shortage of dentists in the state. With 15 of its 16 counties identified as dental health shortage areas and a high percentage of its practicing dentists reaching retirement age within the next five to 10 years, Maine received a much needed boost in heading off its dental crisis in 2013 with the opening of the University of New England’s College of Dental Medicine, the first dental college in Maine and all of northern New England.
UNE has now partnered with KeyBank to take strategic steps toward building a robust dental workforce pipeline for Aroostook and Penobscot counties, two geographic areas of specific oral health need. With a generous grant of $160,000, KeyBank has made possible the Key to Oral Health program, an ambitious initiative with a long-term goal of encouraging select UNE dental graduates to practice in these underserved counties upon graduation.
The UNE-KeyBank partnership will leverage the transformational impact of UNE’s College of Dental Medicine, provide enormous benefits to students and patients, and create a hopeful future that enhances the dental workforce pipeline while also improving oral health in Aroostook and Penobscot counties.
“It is exciting to enter this partnership with a business with which we are unified in our commitment to community,” said Danielle Ripich, Ph.D., president of the college. “UNE truly is a private university with a public mission, and we are so pleased to develop a dental workforce pipeline for Maine’s rural and underserved regions in collaboration with KeyBank, which shares our sense of civic responsibility.”
UNE has designed this program to maximize the impact of fourth-year dental student rotations in Aroostook and Penobscot. UNE dental students selected for the program — known as Key Oral Health Scholars — will participate in targeted, community-based service learning projects while they are completing their clinical rotations at federally qualified and other community health centers. Service learning is a superb model for helping students develop strong, lasting relationships with community members while on their rotations, bonds that will enhance their desire to return to serve these underserved communities upon graduation, thereby contributing to a long-term solution to the dental care shortage problem.
Over the course of an estimated 12-week rotation, Key Oral Health Scholars will have an opportunity to provide oral health education in local schools and senior centers, mentor high school youth interested in an oral health career, meet the region’s dental professionals, bring their family to the area, and learn about the counties’ unique and compelling landscapes, cultures and attractions.
At the same time, UNE’s dental students will provide much-needed care to the rural and underserved residents of Aroostook and Penobscot. KeyBank’s funding will provide generous support for program management, dental student scholarships and stipends, service learning projects, and training for clinical preceptors.
“The Key to Oral Health is a great example of how UNE impacts the entire state of Maine. By sending its students out to the areas where the need is greatest, instead of keeping them in the classroom in southern Maine, they will have the opportunity to learn, treat people in need, and develop relationships in areas of the state where they will hopefully return to work,” said Sterling Kozlowski, president of the Maine Market of KeyBank.
Over the course of this three-year project, UNE’s College of Dental Medicine will choose a total of 14 Key Oral Health Scholars by the end of 2016, with the first seven to be selected by December of this year. The university projects that up to 2,700 patient visits will be provided annually by the scholars, delivering 4,000-5,000 oral health care patient visits by the conclusion of the program on May 31, 2018.
