Daily Reflector Monday, March 13, 2006
Editorial: Easy choice – ECU dental school a natural fit for region
Dental needs are critical in eastern North Carolina, and East Carolina University is proposing to meet the challenge with the establishment of a school of dentistry here.
From its beginnings, the university has a history of addressing public concerns. Initially it was to provide trained teachers to meet the growth in public education. Its name, East Carolina Teachers Training School, virtually mandated it.
Now, the institution has matured into a university worthy of the name, one which develops programs to meet the requirements of the state and the region.
It is well known that ECU has met its goals in establishing a medical school. The goals included strong emphasis on family medicine, recruiting minority candidates for admission to its programs and building a program which would command respect. Its outreach in the eastern area has been solid and the school has developed in various ways to provide health care services in every way.
Many of these same goals are envisioned for a dental school, including welcoming minority candidates and emphasizing meeting the demand for dentists in eastern North Carolina, as well as improving overall health care.
That there is a crisis in dental care in some areas of eastern North Carolina cannot be challenged. The state ranks 47th in the nation in dentists to population. Even worse, in eastern North Carolina, there are four counties without a single dentist, and three have only one dentist.
The university has a plan for meeting eastern dental care demands. As well as establishing a dental school, it anticipates developing eight to 10 oral health centers in the state's rural areas. There, fourth-year students will work and learn as they complete their studies.
ECU's trustees have made the first step by unanimously approving a resolution to begin the school. They are hoping for Board of Governors approval by as early as this spring.
But even then it will still require at least three years before the program can be a reality.
Chancellor Steve Ballard discussed the plans when the ECU Board of Visitors traveled to Edenton recently. He said a dental school is "the right thing for us."
East Carolina College initially entered the health care field by beginning the School of Nursing, with strong assistance from Walter B. Jones Sr., who would become a long-time congressman representing the old 1st Congressional District.
That was followed by the development of various allied health fields of study and then the Brody School of Medicine of ECU.
It is a fact that dental care is a major part of patients' general health. Given that and the location here of the Brody School of Medicine to serve eastern North Carolina, it has to be predictable that a dental school in Greenville will provide desperately needed services to the people of the east.
We can do this, or accept the reality of children with rotting teeth and the elderly with dental problems affecting their general health. That doesn't seem to be a difficult choice to make at all.
