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H H S Department of Health and Human Services
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Dental Faculty Loan Repayment

FY2011 Abstracts

GeorgiaMississippiNevada
New YorkWashington 

 Georgia

Medical College of Georgia, School of Dentistry
Project Director: Carol A Lefebvre, DDS, MS
SOD, Medical College of Georgia
Augusta, GA 30912
Phone: (706) 721-8611
Fax: (706) 721-6276
Grant Number: D87HP20226

The purpose of this project is to provide loan repayment incentives to 6 (six) current faculty members of the Medical College of Georgia School of Dentistry (MCG SOD) who are engaged in general and pediatric dentistry.

MCG is currently building a new dental school that will increase dental student class size from the current 65-70 students to 100 students. It is estimated that the SOD will need to recruit 28 new faculty members, including approximately 10 general dentists and 3 pediatric dentists, to accommodate the increase in class size. This comes at a time when more than half of existing faculty nationally are nearing retirement (21 of the current 77 full-time MCG faculty are eligible for retirement in 5 years), an average of seven or more unfilled positions exist per dental school, dentists can earn considerably more in private practice than they can in academia and dental student debt is increasing. Relieving debt burden through the DFLRP would increase the ability of the dental school to retain faculty in academia.

Loan forgiveness funds totaling $481,988 over the 5-year period will be provided for six (6) dentists engaged in general and pediatric dentistry. Five qualified faculty members are general dentists and one is a pediatric dentist. A Loan Repayment Committee will be established to develop an application process, accept and review applications, develop a Promissory Note to be signed by all participants, adequately safeguard funds, ensure that the status of loan recipients is properly monitored and provide required reports.

The desired outcome of the current loan repayment grant would be that the Medical College of Georgia, dental students, and the citizens of Georgia and the US would benefit from the six (6) grant recipients remaining as full-time faculty members for the length of their careers.

 Mississippi

University of Mississippi Medical Center, School of Dentistry 
Project Director: Tracy Dellinger, DDS, MS
2500 North State Street
Jackson, MS 39216
Phone: (601) 984-6028
Fax: (601) 984-6039
Grant number: D87HP20229

Dental faculty shortages have been identified not only in Mississippi, but also nationally.  There are many reasons that individuals are not interested into getting into academia, or one leaving academia, to pursue a dental care practice in the public sector.  However, financial considerations are a large motivator.   

The University of Mississippi School of Dentistry (UMSOD) is the sole source for doctorate dental degree programs.  The full-time dental faculty consists of 36 individuals. However, there has been four individuals who have retired in last five years and 4.5 full-time FTEs which have resigned.  This represents a 26.4% turnover of full-time dental faculty at UMSOD.  Additionally, the University of Mississippi Medical Center offers dental hygiene training, at the level of a bachelors’ degree.  Both programs are designed for primary dental care providers in Mississippi, as well as the nation.  Strategies need to be in place to increase the desirability of an academic career to create a public/private sector workforce.  Thus, providing dental education loan repayment options is an opportunity to both retain and recruit dental faculty.

The proposed project would provide loan repayment of any educational loan related to the proposed, or current, teaching role of a Faculty of the University of Mississippi Medical Center engaged in primary care dentistry; to included general dentistry, pediatric dentistry, public health dentistry and/or  dental hygiene or students or residents  The program would pay the principal and interest of the outstanding student loans based on a calculation of 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30 percent for each respective first, second, third, fourth and fifth year of service as faculty at the University of Mississippi Medical Center.

 Nevada

University of Las Vegas, School of Dental Medicine
Project Director: Cody C. Hughes, DMD, MSD
1001 Shadow Lane, MS 7410
Las Vegas, NV 89106
Phone:  (702) 774-2674
Fax: (702) 774-2419
Grant number: D87HP20228

 The University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Dental Medicine (UNLV SDM) seeks funding to establish a Dental Faculty Loan Repayment Program. The UNLV SDM is the only fully accredited full-time dental school in the state of Nevada conferring Doctor of Dental Medicine (DMD) degrees on students that complete the four-year training program. Currently, UNLV SDM matriculates 75-80 new students each year with a goal to graduate 75 students per year. UNLV SDM provides patient services, prepares students for careers in general and specialty practice, engages the community through oral health education and screenings, and conducts research to expand the knowledge base of oral health care. UNLV SDM also has specialty education programs in Pediatric Dentistry and Orthodontics, as well as a General Practice Residency (GPR) program which includes hospital-based care. The specialty program in Pediatric Dentistry matriculates 6 new residents each year into the two-year program for a total of 12 residents in the program at a time. The GPR program accepts 6 new residents each year for the one-year program. For UNLV SDM to continue to train experienced clinicians and serve Nevada, it is imperative that well-qualified faculty are recruited and retained. Dental schools across the country, including UNLV, are struggling to fill all faculty positions and retain current faculty. A huge obstacle in the recruitment and retention of new faculty is the large reduction in salary a clinician must accept to work in academics as opposed to private practice. Adding to this obstacle is the increasing amount of student loan debt incurred to become a General Dentist or a specialist. The ability to pay off student loans deters many new dentists from being able to accept the salary reduction required to enter academics. Additionally, many schools, including UNLV, will lose a significant amount of faculty over the next 5-10 years to retirement as the current faculty demographics lean heavily towards older members. UNLV SDM would greatly benefit from a Dental Faculty Loan Repayment Program to aid in recruitment and retention of new younger, highly qualified faculty to educate the next generation of oral health care specialists. In conjunction with the grant, this program would terminate July 2015.

 New York

Lutheran Family Health Centers/Lutheran Medical Center
Project Director: Neal Demby, DMD, MPH
150 55th Street
Brooklyn, NY 11220
Phone: (718) 630-7177
Fax: (718) 639-8714
Grant number: D87HP20225

Lutheran HealthCare (LHC), the organization that represents the combined resources of Lutheran Medical Center (LMC) and the Lutheran Family Health Centers (LFHC), sponsors three primary care dental residency programs: General Practice Residency (GPR), Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD), and Advanced Education in Pediatric Dentistry (Peds).  Through the use of innovative management tools and the development of several modes of distance learning that include video-teleconferencing (VTC) and a web-based learning system, the programs have achieved national recognition for their placement of LHC residents in underserved communities in 14 states and Puerto Rico.  The combined total of AEGD, Peds and GPR residents at all sites is 175.  The combined total of clinical dentists at these sites, including Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC’s), Indian Health Service and Department of Health clinics that participate in the training of LHC residents, is circa 535 faculty members.

Since the inception of the program in 1992, LHC has conducted annual Faculty Development Conferences at which seminars were conducted to standardize resident-required competencies and proficiencies, evaluate program progress, prepare sites for ADA accreditation site visits, and in particular, to provide clinicians with the skills required to become educators.  This program has met with considerable success as, over time, participating dentist clinicians have chosen to increase their commitment to dental education, both in Lutheran’s own programs, and for some, in University-level, pre-doctoral programs, as well as other institution’s post-doctoral programs.

The barrier, however, for most of this highly motivated, energetic, committed group of clinicians from accepting full-time leadership positions with Lutheran’s own programs, even in their own FQHC’s, has been their need to generate enough income to pay off student loans by working in patient care, either in the private sector, or part-time in their own clinics.

With this proposal, LHC will be able to offer these, and other potential high quality faculty, the opportunity to follow their dream into a career in dental education.  In the case of the applicant, their educational careers will unfold in a FQHC, giving them, and ultimately their students, the positive societal values of providing care and education in a faculty that cares for the most needy members of our society.

 Washington

University of Washington School of Dentistry
Project Director: Joel H. Berg, DDS, MS
Box 357136; 1959 NE Pacific Street
Seattle, WA  98195-7136
Congressional District: WA-07
Phone:  (206) 543-4885
Fax:  (206) 616-7470
Grant number: D87HP20227

The purpose of this proposal is to develop a program for loan repayment utilizing the funding established through the Dental Faculty Loan Repayment program (HRSA-10-260). This program will aid in attracting and retaining junior faculty for the UW Center for Pediatric Dentistry (CPD). The proposed loan repayment program is unique and well designed, and will serve not only in the development of the full-time academic careers of junior faculty, but also as a model for future faculty loan repayment programs.

In 2000, 245 vacant full-time faculty and 77 vacant part-time faculty positions were reported in US dental schools. In 2005-2006, 365 full-time and 41 part-time positions were reported. This represents a 49% increase in unfilled faculty lines over 6 years.1 One study reported that 1/3 of pediatric dental programs had fewer faculty than 5 years previously and 1/3 had 1 or more unfilled full-time faculty positions.2 Undoubtedly this shortage is due, in part, to rising student debt. Because of such high levels of debt, many graduates may consider faculty salaries to be inadequate to cover student loan payments. This faculty shortage represents a situation which will have major implications for the education of all dental professionals and the pipeline of oral health researchers.

It has been suggested that federal loan repayment incentives are a promising strategy to increase the number of dentists in faculty or research tracks. The UW Department of Pediatric Dentistry has developed a new educational center to address issues in dental education and access to care for children in the King county area. In September of 2010, this expanded facility, the CPD will open its doors. The Center will focus primarily on children from birth to age three. While adult populations have seen improvements in oral health, these young children have experienced worsening outcomes.1 For this reason, the CPD faculty will provide intensive training of dental students, residents, and general dentists in components of early childhood oral health. In order to adequately provide quality teaching and mentoring of trainees, two new faculty positions have been approved.

1Chmar J, Weaver R, Valachovic R: Dental school vacant bugeted faculty positions, academic years 2005-06 and 2006-07. In., vol. 72: J Dent Educ; 2008: 690-709.

2Seale N, Casamassimo P: US predoctoral education in pediatric dentistry: its impact on access to dental care. In., vol. 67: J Dent Educ; 2003: 23-30.

3Services UDoHaH: Oral health in America: a report of the Surgeon General. In. Rockville, MD: US Department of Health and Human Services, Natioinal Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research, National Institutes of Health; 2000.