August 17, 2018 • Local News
El Paso Inc: Regents move El Paso dental school forward
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center El Paso is one step closer to opening a dental school, which will be the first to open in Texas in nearly 50 years.
The Texas Tech Board of Regents on Friday approved the doctor of dental medicine degree that will be offered by the school, which is expected to welcome its first class in 2021.
The school’s leaders say they are now focused on getting state approval and accreditation, as well as forming a new branch of the American Dental Association.
“This is the first step in about four or five huge milestones,” said Dr. Richard Black, dean of the Woody L. Hunt School of Dental Medicine.
Before the school can open, it will need the approval of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board. It is also seeking accreditation from The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges and the Commission on Dental Accreditation, an arm of the American Dental Association.
A feasibility study recently published by Texas Tech found that El Paso has an acute shortage of dentists and concludes that a new dental school is needed.
For every 100,000 El Pasoans, there are about 30 dentists. The national average is about double that.
The study cited a report by Texas Health and Human Services that found El Paso County ranks 112 out of 197 Texas counties for its ratio of dentists to residents in 2017.
Black said West Texas does not have the same access to dentists in part because the nearest in-state dental program is about 550 miles away. About 75 percent of dental school graduates establish their practices in close proximity to their schools, according to the study.
The shortage is only expected to get worse as many of the dentists in El Paso are over 50 years old.
The study found that 38 percent of dentists in El Paso are close to retirement age, and a new generation of dentists will have to fill their places soon.
“El Paso and West Texas and the border area are historically underrepresented with dentists,” Black said. “The school is being created in an attempt to solve that distribution problem.”
The school is supported by a $25-million gift from the Hunt Family Foundation and a grant from the Paso del Note Foundation.
Early estimates put the total school price tag at between $50 million and $60 million.
It is the latest piece of a broader effort to develop a medical campus in Central El Paso, anchored by a health sciences center and county hospital.
“It’s going to happen in 2021,” Black said. “It’s going to be the newest, most innovative and interesting dental school in a long time.”
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