which are driven by access to care problems — is one reason why Dean John
Williams has put renewed emphasis on
clinical training. “I can show you dental
disease right down the road in Durham
that will rival what you see in some of
these other areas,” he says.
Williams will step down after five years
on the job to pursue other academic interests. The school is assembling a list of potential replacements; candidates on the short list
are expected to come to campus for interviews in late February or early March.
PATRICK GALLOWAY
As part of meeting the state’s growing
need, the dental school plans to move into
a 216,000-square-foot building by 2011.
The new space will enable the school to
increase class size from 80 to 100, as well as
increase the amount of research it pursues
on campus. It will be the school’s fifth
major expansion since the 1950s.
For the first time, there is in-state com-
petition on the horizon as well. A new
dental school is expected to open at East
Carolina University in 2011. UNC faculty
and administrators say the new school
could make recruiting faculty more chal-
lenging, particularly given how difficult it is
to lure faculty from lucrative private prac-
tices into academia. But they don’t expect
the competition to impact the quality of
their student body. Having another pro-
gram in the state “will help us out,” says
pediatric dentist Jessica Lee. “We can’t train
them all.”
Students like Patrick Galloway, mean-
while, say they’re ready to take on dental
disease wherever it can be found. Galloway,
a North Carolina native, hopes to be part
of the school’s next volunteer trip to
Moldova. After he graduates, he wants to
practice in North Carolina and continue to
work with Missions of Mercy. Treating
low-income patients, Galloway says, “is
going to be a huge aspect of what I do.
There’s no way you could pry my hands
off of that.”
UNC dental students work at a Missions of
Mercy clinic in mostly rural Dare County on the
N.C. coast in October. The call for volunteers
for the clinic at the dental school was fulfilled
in 30 minutes.
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teeth than they did 20 years ago,” Solow
said — and more Spanish speakers. The
clinic has adapted by hiring a full-time
interpreter and developing techniques to
deal with the mobility and memory issues
that older patients might have.
UNC dentists also are seeing more
young kids than ever. Dr. Jessica Lee ’02
(PhD), associate professor of pediatric den-
tistry, says the dental disease rate for young
children in North Carolina is “incredibly
high.”
“The younger kids are definitely getting
worse,” said Lee, who routinely places
crowns and fillings in the teeth of children
as young as 18 months. “A lot of people are
on the well system. They don’t have fluori-
dated water. A lot of it is just habit and
diet. We’ve got some work to do educating
parents and the public.”
The dental issues that continue to
plague North Carolinians — many of
— Darv Johnson ’ 93
