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their sense of community awareness. If we lose this grant, we’d have to go digging for another resource to continue to support those student rotations. We are preparing to request a renewal for a grant that Dr. Carole Hanes and Dr. James Barenie won for the dental school from the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). Through this grant, loan forgiveness funds totaling $50,000 annually are awarded for two dentists who agree to serve in a Dental Health Professional Shortage Area. We now have 10 Georgia dentists benefitting from this grant working in underserved areas and devoting 50% of their practice to underserved patients. These 10 dentists have provided hundreds of thousands of dollars of unreimbursed care in exchange for $20,000 to $25,000 a year of loan forgiveness. To me, loan forgiveness is the most efficient and inexpensive way to get dentists in locations where you need them. When a dentist arrives and becomes part of the community, they find out that they can make a nice living once they build their base of patients. But again, it’s all grant supported and subject to renewals and budget pressures.
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We’ve also benefitted from gifts from dental companies. About five years ago we received a $6.2 million gift from Nobel Biocare that allowed us to train our dental students to place and restore implants, bring in a series of master clinicians to support our academic program, and bring in a master ceramist so we could grow our aesthetic dentistry section. The company recently gave us another pledge to continue to support our aesthetic program. This no-strings gift was a good fit because the school had been using the company’s products for 20 years anyway. We are hopeful that the gift will be renewed. Dental administrators must keep turning over every rock to find the next dollar or two. As soon as you get one source of funding going the next source dries up and you have to find a new resource to support a thriving program.
GDA: Ten years ago, the dental school consistently reported difficulty in recruiting dental faculty. Has that changed? Dr. Drisko: Well, faculty recruitment is still a problem, but not at the magnitude it
used to be. About five or six years ago, there were approximately 400 dental faculty positions open nationwide. It’s now down to about 300, so the overall shortage of faculty has been reduced. At GRU we have been very fortunate to recruit faculty members when we’ve had open positions. Since I’ve been with the school, we’ve gained 20 faculty positions as our class size has grown. I have seen 58 of our 74 faculty members join during my 10 years as dean. The challenge that remains is replacing faculty members who are retiring and nearing retirement age. Some people that we’re hiring at GRU are coming from private practice with 20 years of experience. They are fabulous teachers, but the life of their remaining career isn’t as long as if you hired a faculty member right out of dental school. We find ourselves constantly recruiting new blood. We have been successful reaching younger faculty members with young families because of what Augusta offers. The city is affordable for young families and the school systems
DRISKO Continued on page 16
GDA ACTION
15 JUNE 2013