Did they seriously mistype DMD as DDM or are they offering a new doctorate acronym?
This also means Virginia applicants now have two in-state dental schools, with less-nationally recognized names, to apply to.
Having been to Virginia's MOM projects, I've witnessed how many people of Appalachian regions desperately need a large organized dental care institution to occupy the gaps that the reach of small dental offices have failed to fill.
I don't know if i would touch this school with a 10 ft pole.... It seems they only offer undergraduate degrees.
They offer majors in "Church Music" and "Christian Drama." This is definitely a theological school. Unfortunately, this school is another non-traditional dental school that does not assume the role as science and health research institutions which respectable and more established dental schools (like VCU) already assume. The only similarity between VCU and Bluefield is that both their mascots are rams.
I really don't like this trend of new non-traditional dental schools opening which don't have any traditional basic science or clinical research backgrounds that serve to advance the profession of dentistry. These schools are just money making, dentist factories. Regardless, many of them do aim to address and serve underserved, problem communities.
According to the
Religious Herald,
"The American Dental Association has reported that oral care is limited in rural communities in part because dental school graduates, burdened with debt, are drawn to more lucrative urban areas. To counter that trend, Bluefield aims to partner with rural outreach clinics to implement a block scheduling system for students which will keep tuition as low as possible. School officials will aggressively recruit qualified applicants from the Appalachian region.
"We don't want to educate and export our graduates to urban areas," said Olive. "We want them to stay at home to provide quality care to communities that are losing dentists and to mentor future dental students."
Participants in the program will participate in community service projects to educate public school students about tooth decay, obesity, diabetes, hygiene, nutrition and exercise to break the cycle of poor health outcomes in their communities."
http://www.religiousherald.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6302&Itemid=43
The best solution, supplementing the opening of new schools, is to make rural areas more attractive places to practice, probably through state and federal incentives.
"There is an idea that because there will be more dentists, they will go to where the care is needed," said Dr. Denis E. Simon III, chair of the ADA Council on Dental Education and Licensure. "Dentists are still independent practitioners who have to go out and make a living. Even in my own state of Louisiana, new graduates tend to stay and practice in Baton Rouge, New Orleans or other more metropolitan areas rather than go to some of the areas of the state where there are fewer dentists."
http://www.ada.org/news/2506.aspx
