By By GREG KATSKI
Community Editor
East Carolina University’s School of Dentistry has devised a new and creative way to serve rural communities in desperate need of dental services, according to Dr. James Hupp, dean of the school.
In a presentation made to the Washington Noon Rotary on Monday, Hupp said community-service learning centers will be set up in underserved areas around the state, particularly eastern North Carolina. Dental-school students will receive “on-the-job training” at the centers, working on patients who may be in need of significant dental work.
“We are going to take students and put them in rural settings where they can do more robust dentistry,” Hupp said.
East Carolina University will be the first college in the nation to start such a program, which Hupp called an “experiment.” The first three centers will be located in Ahoskie, Elizabeth City and Sylva, he said.
The school is looking for students who hail from rural communities, as they might be more apt to start a dental practice in an underserved area after graduating from ECU, according to Hupp. The school, which is set to open in August 2011, will have 50 students and four to six general-practice residents a year.
When asked about the possibility of a center coming to Beaufort County, Hupp said that wasn’t likely to happen, considering the county’s close proximity to Greenville.
“Washington doesn’t have the severe access problem that some areas do,” he said. “We’re looking at people that have to drive one-and-a-half to two hours for service.”
Counties north and east of Beaufort are more likely to have centers at some point, Hupp said.
He believes the School of Dentistry’s program will be a success and similar programs will catch on at other dentistry schools.
“Other schools are thinking about doing it. They want to see how we do,” Hupp said.
Hupp, dean of the University of Mississippi’s School of Dentistry before joining ECU’s staff, is a professor of oral and maxillofacial surgery. Hupp earned his doctor-of-dental-medicine degree from Harvard University.