NEOMED's new dental school to target oral health crisis

ROOTSTOWN − In about a year, 50 future dentists will begin training in Portage County, hoping to help address an Ohio shortage .

Northeast Ohio Medical University hosted a ceremonial groundbreaking Thursday for the clinical spaces in the Bitonte College of Dentistry in Rootstown. NEOMED already has started construction on the dental school, including a simulation training lab and a community dental clinic.

The first class of 50 students will begin training in August 2025 at the Rootstown medical university. Dr. Frank Beck, dean of the dental school, said the university is sorting through 1,400 applications for those spots.

New school to help solve a health need

NEOMED had considered adding a dental school in 2014 , when the university was led by Dr. Jay Gershen, who was a dentist. At that time, NEOMED leaders said Portage County had 32 dentists per 100,000 residents − about half the national average of 60 dentists per 100,000 people.

Dr. John Langell, president of NEOMED, said he repeatedly was asked to revive those discussions by NEOMED's partners, who cited the lack of dentists in the region and the impact of oral health on other health conditions. NEOMED did the studies to prove the need for the dental school, and found that oral health was the top unmet health need in Ohio.

NEOMED estimates that 57% of Ohio dentists are age 50 or older and approaching retirement, and 627 dentists will be needed in Ohio by 2025, and 11,000 nationally.

The dental school will be the third in Ohio. The others are a public program at Ohio State University and a private program at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland.

"I'll be honest, I didn't come to NEOMED to start a college of dentistry," Langell said. "But this is very mission aligned."

NEOMED is again helping in a medical crisis

Dr. Frank Beck, dean of the dental school, said NEOMED was established about 50 years ago in response to a shortage of primary care physicians.

Now, he said, the dental school is being established to address a "crisis" in oral health.

According to the American Dental Association, there are an estimated 2 million visits to emergency rooms because of dental pain.

Because emergency departments don't provide dental care, patients are sent home with a prescription for opioids and are instructed to follow up with their dentist. But many patients don't have a dentist, and because of the shortage of dentists in Ohio, many providers are at capacity and aren't taking new patients.

That means that patients often have no choice but to return to the emergency department when their pain persists − which fuels the opioid crisis.

The dental school, he said, will create links with emergent care centers. When a patient presents with a dental problem, a medical social worker will help the patient make an appointment with a dentist − including the dental clinic that will be set up at NEOMED.

Donations, grants make the school a reality

In 2022, Drs. Gary and David Bitonte donated $10 million to the dental school in memory of their parents, Dominic Bitonte, who was a dentist, and Helen Bitonte, who worked to educate school children about proper dental care. The dental school was named for the Bitonte family, in recognition of the largest donation in NEOMED's history.

That gift, when combined with $5 million in funding from the state of Ohio and $2 million from the federal government, provided most of the $25 million needed to establish and sustain the dental school.

Prior to the ceremonial groundbreaking, a ceremony took place in the Bitonte Auditorium, which was established in 2004 thanks to another donation from Dominic and Helen Bitonte.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: NEOMED's new dental school to target oral health crisis