New graduate school would allow dozens of dentists to train in Vermont by 2027

A new dental school and clinic is expected to bring dozens of dental students to Vermont by 2027, thanks in part to an expected multimillion-dollar boost from Congress. Over the next two years, students will complete their training and begin practicing on patients in a state that is chronically short of dentists.

At a news conference Friday, representatives from the Vermont State Dental Society, the Vermont congressional delegation and the University of Detroit Mercy — which is spearheading the new program in Vermont — celebrated the program’s recent accreditation and its eventual launch, expected in May 2027.

“It’s no secret to anyone in this room that we have a dental crisis in our country and we have a dental crisis in Vermont,” U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont, said at a news conference Friday. “And that’s a crisis, by the way … that’s too often ignored. We’re talking about a health care crisis. Guess what? Dental care is health care.”

Students in the program will begin their dental studies at the university’s Detroit, Michigan, campus in fall 2025 and then complete their third and fourth years of training at a yet-to-be-finalized location in Colchester beginning in May 2027, Detroit Mercy Dental Dean Mert Aksu said.

Sanders said each class will consist of 32 students. That means that when the program is fully operational, with both third- and fourth-year students, there will be 64 additional dentists in training. “That’s a lot of dentists for this state, right?” Sanders joked.

Upon completion of their training, students will begin providing dental care to eligible patients in Vermont at a planned Medicaid public health clinic.

“We had one problem: We had too many applicants for the clinical training positions we could fill in Detroit,” Aksu said. “We saw many, many very talented, well-disposed, enthusiastic potential oral health professionals who had not been given the opportunity to become dentists but who could help solve a problem in a state that really needed it.”

Aksu added that the ultimate “vision” of the program is that students who complete the program in Vermont “will be so energized, enthusiastic and charged by the experience here that they will want to stay” in the state permanently.

Because there is no dental school in the state and Vermont dentists are nearing retirement age, Vermont has a shortage of dental care. Rebecca Ellis, state director for U.S. Sen. Peter Welch, a Vermont Democrat, said Friday that in 2019, 26% of Vermont dentists were 60 or older and nearing retirement.

“It’s no surprise that the top two priorities in the Vermont Oral Health Plan for 2022 are, one, increasing access to dental care for all Vermonters and, two, expanding the dental workforce,” Ellis said. “The Detroit Mercy Vermont program will address both of those priorities.”

Both Welch and Sanders have requested $4.6 million in congressional spending money, also known as special appropriations, this budget cycle to help fund the effort. Northeast Delta Dental, an insurance company that offers dental insurance, also pledged $2 million for the effort, Sanders said Friday.

With the school infrastructure already in place — albeit out of state — Aksu said the startup costs for the program in Vermont are much lower. Opening an entirely new dental school in the state from scratch would cost about $150 million, he said.

The school is in the process of finalizing a lease for a classroom and clinic in the Greater Burlington area, Aksu told reporters Friday. A news release issued later Friday said the school and clinic would be located in Colchester.

As for where students and faculty in the program would be housed, Aksu said the university is in talks “with a local higher education institution that has the capacity to provide housing here in the Burlington area… for both graduate students and faculty who may be interning here.”