Two public universities are poised to ask the State University System governing board for permission to start a dental school despite a recent health department report that questions whether there is a need for more dentists.
Last week, in preparation for a September board meeting, the University of Central Florida and Florida A&M University both submitted formal requests with the Board of Governors to start new dental schools. These requests are pitting several universities against each other in the quest to lure dental school students and research dollars.
But they may not have an easy time gaining approval. The Board of Governors has been studying the issue for months and recently took in a Department of Health study that said there are enough new Florida dentists entering the profession through 2050 to offset any attrition due to retiring dentists.
There is widespread agreement that more dentists are needed in rural Florida, but dentists are reluctant to locate there, in part because of low Medicaid reimbursement rates and the attraction of large, urban centers.
With Florida strapped for cash and reducing money to state universities, the University of Central Florida's exhaustive 212-page pitch starts with the promise that it won't require any state funding.
"If I had to say one thing about this project it is that it will be developed, constructed and operated with no state money," said UCF spokesman Grant Heston.
An anonymous donor has agreed to give the university $10 million for a dental school, with the rest of the cost paid for with a loan and, eventually, tuition and fees paid for by students.
UCF plans to charge $55,675 a year in tuition to its four-year dental program, the proposal says, and expects to open as soon as 2014, and graduate classes of nearly 100 students each year.
Florida A&M University's proposal was not available Monday in electronic form.
Florida has two dental schools already.
The University of Florida runs a dental school, as does private school Nova Southeastern University. In addition, the Lake Erie College of Medicine also plans to open a dental school in Fall 2012 in the Tampa area.
The University of Florida isn't enthusiastic about the idea of more dental school competition.
In its own request to the board, UF has put forward a competing proposal. It wants the state to appropriate nearly $4 million to expand its dental school and offer more minority scholarships.
In its request, UF argued that adding new dental schools likely wouldnt help solve the issue of the lack of dentists in rural areas, and at best would be an expensive remedy.
One reason universities are eager to open dental schools is that they are seen as moneymakers. For instance, the University of Central Florida projects that only four years into the program, it would net a profit. By the tenth year, the university would make $11.2 million off of its dental school, with none of the revenue coming from the state.
Some of that funding comes from tuition and fees, and some from the student clinic and research grants.
But UF suggests this budget may be too optimistic.
The University of Florida said attracting those types of research dollars takes at least 10 years. The school also submitted its own operating budget as part of its proposal and without state funds it would operate at a loss.
There is also the question of whether Florida needs more dentists.
The state's Department of Health found an estimated 3,054 new dentists will be added to Florida's work force every decade, in a report released this year. These new additions will more than offset any losses from dentists retiring or moving. And that doesn't even include data from the Lake Erie College of Medicine dental school.
The report does conclude, however, that dentists are needed in rural Florida. Most Florida dentists work in South Florida, leaving rural counties in the Panhandle and Central Florida underserved.
UCF argues it can help satisfy this demand for dentists in rural or underserved areas. Part of its pitch includes a promise to offer a dental clinic to low-income patients and a requirement that students volunteer their services in community clinics.
UCF's proposal comes armed with its own data to show there is a need for dentists.
It says the DOH report did not consider whether any dentists would die, or account for population growth. A UCF-sponsored study found that demand for new dentists ranges from 353 to 455 dentists per year between 2011 and 2015.
"The projected demand exceeds the 150 dentists currently produced by Florida dental schools," the UCF report notes. It also says that hundreds of "qualified applicants" are rejected each year for lack of space.
But the UCF proposal doesn't include loan forgiveness, or any other financial incentives to entice graduates into underserved areas.
Cesar Sabates, the head of the Florida Dental Association, said he doesn't believe new dental schools will solve the problem of the lack of dentists in rural areas.
"We feel there is an adequate number of dentists in the state of Florida," Sabates said. "There is simply a maldistribution of dentists throughout the state."
He said there is currently a loan forgiveness program on the books that would encourage dental school students to open practices in rural areas, but that it has not been funded by the Legislature.
"Enhancing our current University of Florida program would be more cost-effective," Sabates said.
