Another new school opens

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Let me guess, they are gonna accept applicants from California and NY to fill the shortage in Central Appalachia. What a joke.

We should be outraged that our profession has gone from noble research institutions such as Northwestern, Georgetown and Loyola to schools such as Bluefield, Roseman, and LECOM. I hope you guys see the writing on the wall. Someday it will be University of Phoenix and there will be commercials on TV.
 
tingting said:
Let me guess, they are gonna accept applicants from California and NY to fill the shortage in Central Appalachia. What a joke.

We should be outraged that our profession has gone from noble research institutions such as Northwestern, Georgetown and Loyola to schools such as Bluefield, Roseman, and LECOM. I hope you guys see the writing on the wall. Someday it will be University of Phoenix and there will be commercials on TV.
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The UoP part makes me nauseated. Maybe this one will get shot down. Seems like it was more of a business deal by the little video I watched.
 
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If a majority of their graduating dentists are not choosing to establish themselves within Tazewell County, I think Bluefield should offer a considerably reduced tuition rate contract to students who pledge to practice (as an associate or owner) within the Tazewell County or its immediate surrounding areas for at least five years. If the student signs for an additional three to five year contract, they should be offered an additional 5-year-deferred loan repayment program. Once you get these new dentists established, I think they would be less likely to be enticed to leave their established customer base and practice elsewhere. After these areas become reasonably saturated, they should branch out the limited regions of practice to other problematic areas within WV and VA. Fearing that corporate dentistry might take advantage of these contracted dentists, I think the state should also bar corporate chains that are owned, operated, or managed by unlicensed non-dentists with third party interests from practicing within these areas. But this is probably already an established law. The tuition rate without a contract should be made intentionally high in order to make the contractual program more attractive. Since Bluefield's research staff is embarrassingly non-existent, VCU and WVU should work with Bluefield for collaborated basic-science and clinical research, although they are miles and miles away from each other.

What would a dental school or state have to offer you for you to commit to practicing within a rural area?
 
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This is ridiculous.

From that website:

"To be officially named at a later date, the new dental school, according to BC and County officials, is designed to address the growing shortage of dentists and dental care professionals in southwest Virginia and Central Appalachia."

SERIOUSLY? Have these guys forgotten or even heard of Dr. Roy Shelburne?

http://www.royshelburne.com/p/about-roy.html

In a nutshell, Dr. Shelburne was from southwest Virigina and practiced there. The Feds went after him and his practice using RICO, laws that are generally used to go after gangs and terrorists. He went to prison for 2 years and is still on probation. This guy was not bilking Medicaid the way things are going down in Texas right now. The feeling on the Dentaltown thread on him was that this was a really bad case of Medicaid auditing gone very, very, very wrong.

And they wonder why no one wants to go there to address their "shortage" of access to care? Because you had a local homegrown dentist practicing there and you sent him to jail. BECAUSE NO DENTIST WANTS TO GO TO JAIL TRYING TO HELP WITH THE ACCESS TO CARE.
 
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Tazwell is the middle of nowhere, I doubt there will be more than a handful of dentists that will stay in rural virginia unless there is some sort of incentive or they only accept students from rural virginia.
 
My school is attempting to make a mid-level dental provider program, too.
I love my school but its a lame idea.

Im doing my best to level the playing field here on a small scale & make awareness of the long term effects. It will be tragic. I wonder if there is a
society or benefit to work with to stop these mid-level schools from opening & to focus their attention on drawing dentists into rural communities through incentive.
We're hosting a dinner with doctors Gala next week. I'm going to talk to the local dentists/specialists in town
and see what their thoughts are & find out which organization it is that they have been working with to keep this particular mid-level school under wraps.


I hear my schools concerns as from an academia point of view
"we are the schooling system, we need to be the ones that fill the need of
dentist shortages in rural areas. We can not make a real dental school fast enough, in the meantime we can make a mid-level school and create mid-level dentists....
its a smart idea! hurrah, lets cut a ribbon!"

but they are unconcerned as to the implications their little decision will make across our country and across time.
its a very very bad idea.

Dentists should somewhat be involved in this decision making process as they are the ones who know what is best for the
next generation of graduates.


as concerning this bluefield school:

There is no incentive/reason to practice in the locality of the rural school while they claim to be furnishing a need.
Why would a grad stay there without incentive?
a more effective route would be to create a program to draw grads&established dentists in, giving them incentive to work in their rural community.
Opening another dental school is not needed to do that.
A Dentist and mid-level dental therapist factory in a rural area with a public promise: "if a school is here then dentists will stay here because the cost of living is slightly lower & with affordable tuition new grads will be more likely to stay and not practice in better paying-areas."
Is NOT a good cause to open a dental school and effectually alter the dental profession permanently by creating half-dentists.
What would stop them from choosing to practice in better paying areas or more enticing areas just because they can?

Tenured Dentists across north America as well as future dentists should
be aware of what is about to knock out the foundation of their empire over time.
Ok thats dramatic.
Basically, it would prove good to mandate certain schools from opening.
The more dentists and future dentists that know about the situation the better, hopefully then we can easily have a say in the future of our career field.

I don't particularly want to see clown-colleges on TV asking if you want to be a dental therapist.
Dentistry is an art & deserves to continue being respected.
 
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Does anyone know if there is a good way to track midlevel legislation. Like a place that compiles the progress of the movement.
 
FHSU is formulating to open a half-dentist factory in 2014.



my concern is that between Obamacare (which is an era-altering event), the obnoxious expense of many dental schools opening, & now mid-level dentistry degrading an honorable and sought-after profession..... Just what is going to happen in North American dentistry.. :-/

probably many dentists will not hire mid-levels to work under them. chains would probably hire many of them bc they dont have to pay them as much or hire as many dentists.
 
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I'm going to repost what I've said earlier about dentistry.
This is the future of dentistry:

The ADA although it is stronger than other professional organizations CANNOT match the lobby groups that want to shove this therapist stuff. The for-profit educational lobby (DeVry, etc), the corporate dental lobby (backed by private equity on WALL ST), and the worse lobby of all: the allied health profession lobby (ie, the nurses, PAs, and FNPs, and now the little therapists) are all combining their efforts to shove this through. I particularly despise the nurse lobby. They know what they are doing is unethical.

Mid-levels will not start their own practices. They are not the type of people. As I said earlier: The little dental therapists remind me of the buffoon cheerleader in high school that complains when she got a 50 on an algebra test, and argued foolishly with the teacher that 1+1 really can equal 3, and thinks that with her 1.0 GPA she should still get into dental school or something like that. Entitled, arrogant, lazy, and snotty. And not intelligent.

The chains will benefit from mid-levels. The chains will be able to use mid-levels freely and will use them to treat more patients at a quicker pace, with little regard for quality. This is cheaper than hiring a dentist, for the chain. Thus the chain will be able to lower its prices and negotiate with the insurance companies for exclusive contracts. Private dentists wont be able to compete. I'm sure the chains will lobby the hel.l out of Washington and say "look at us, we can provide treatment at a lower cost than the private dentists". The politicians will give them all sorts of subsidies and government contracts.

The chains will use the dentists to handle more complicated cases. The dentists wanting employment from the chains will probably have to compete with each other and see who can give the chain a lower bid for their services. The dentist that gives the lowest bid (i.e the dentist that is willing to work for the least compensation) will get the job.

I also want to bring up the point about people saying, "Oh well, chains only treat low-income people." Think of Cheesecake Factory/ Olive Garden/ Macaroni Grill, and those type of restaurants. All are relatively nice, slightly higher scale restaurants that don't cater to just poor-lower middle class people. It appeals to many people who are quite well off, and people who make a pretty darn good amount of money. These type of people are private dentists' most VALUABLE clientele. This will happen in dentistry. A new type of dental chain will emerge: One that has a better looking office with better amenities, offers slightly higher upscale cosmetic dentistry, offers spa services, etc. You get the point. Don't forget the hand behind Cheesecake Factory/Olive Garden is the same hand behind the dental chains: private equity on Wall St. This will hurt private practice dentists the most.

You will have to be creative as a private practice dentist to make a decent amount of money (ie $250K+). If you are very concerned about not being able to make enough, perhaps you should work very very very hard to get OMFS residency. OMFS will always be good. OMFS dentists will probably jump from one chain to another: Yank the thirds, make a good deal of money at one office and keep moving between the chain offices.
 
jpark1800 said:
I'm going to repost what I've said earlier about dentistry.
This is the future of dentistry:

The ADA although it is stronger than other professional organizations CANNOT match the lobby groups that want to shove this therapist stuff. The for-profit educational lobby (DeVry, etc), the corporate dental lobby (backed by private equity on WALL ST), and the worse lobby of all: the allied health profession lobby (ie, the nurses, PAs, and FNPs, and now the little therapists) are all combining their efforts to shove this through. I particularly despise the nurse lobby. They know what they are doing is unethical.

The chains will benefit from mid-levels.
The chains will use the dentists to handle more complicated cases. The dentists wanting employment from the chains will probably have to compete with each other and see who can give the chain a lower bid for their services. The dentist that gives the lowest bid (i.e the dentist that is willing to work for the least compensation) will get the job..
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You scare the 😱 out of me because It is so logical.
hows the dentists union doing lol.
 
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