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$60 Million Approved for New Dental Branch Building
New building for oldest school will enhance oral health research and patient care
Sixty million dollars in Tuition Revenue Bonds from the Texas Legislature will go toward the construction of a new building and a bright future for The University of Texas Dental Branch at Houston.
Catherine M. Flaitz, D.D.S., dean of the Dental Branch, and her administration are grateful to State Rep. Peggy Hamric, R-Houston, who proposed the original bill, along with State Rep. Geanie Morrison, R-Victoria; Senator Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo; Rep. Beverly Woolley, R-Houston; and Rep. Martha Wong, R-Houston, who were also dedicated supporters. Texas Governor Rick Perry approved the funding with his signature May 31.
The UT Dental Branch at Houston building was
constructed 50
years ago. Photo composition by Brian
Schnupp.
The Dental Branch will solicit additional funding from foundations and private individuals for construction, equipment, research expansion, faculty endowments and student scholarships. Stephen F. Schwartz, D.D.S., Dental Branch alumnus and Houston endodontist will lead the fund-raising efforts.
“These state funds have come after two years spent traveling, educating and campaigning for oral health,” said James T. Willerson, M.D., president of the UT Health Science Center at Houston. “I am proud to see our efforts have paid off. We are very grateful to the state legislators for this tremendous support.
“Our dental education program, the only one in the Texas Medical Center, deserves a state-of-the-art facility where the world’s best dental clinicians can collaborate with the best in oral health research,” he said.
“We at the health science center recognize the importance of oral health in relationship to systemic health and quality of life,” Willerson said. “The health science center is the most comprehensive of all Texas health institutions, and we value the many contributions of the Dental Branch, which is our oldest school. I look forward to helping Dean Flaitz fund and construct our new dental school.”
Dental Branch administrators are planning the construction with the big picture in mind, including the school’s current responsibilities, as well as future endeavors. With the class size of the school increasing from 74 to 84, starting this fall, a large part of the big picture is growth in size of the facility.
Equally important, the Dental Branch seeks to recruit high quality researchers and clinician educators with funding from endowments and professorships. The best and brightest students will have generous scholarship funds available, as well. “This building will be constructed with the next 20 years in mind,” Flaitz said. “As access to care issues increase, along with the number of underserved families, the citizens of Texas need us to continue educating top-quality dentists and dental hygienists.
“We also have a commitment to recruiting leaders in oral health research to find cures for the most common oral health diseases, which are increasingly being linked to other illnesses, such as heart disease,” she said.
“This new building is about more than just a replacement facility; it’s about improving an entire institution and subsequently the health of our community and the advancement of the dental profession,” Flaitz said. “The resources in the Texas Medical Center are incomparable, and we need to take advantage of creative opportunities with medicine, bioengineering, public health and health information sciences. ”
Oral health is the gateway to overall health and
positively
linked to one’s quality of life. In Fiscal Year
2005, the Dental
Branch – at its main building,
hospitals
and outreach –
provided nearly 240,000
patient treatments.
The current Dental Branch building, which opened in 1955, is a six-story building in the heart of the Texas Medical Center, at the corner of M. D. Anderson Boulevard and Moursund Avenue. The school celebrated its centennial in 2005 and has enjoyed two years of progress under Flaitz’ leadership.
This fall a $1 million state-of-the-art simulation clinic will open, providing students with the latest in patient care technology, including the use of electronic patient records. The school also is launching its long-awaited UT Dentists faculty practice plan, which will offer dentistry comparable to the care found in private practice dental offices.
In academic achievements the Dental Branch received an unprecedented review from the Commission on Dental Accreditation, with 17 commendations and no recommendations for improvement in 2005. Later that year, the class of 2006 placed the Dental Branch at sixth in the nation for their scores on the National Board Exam Part 1.
Service is also an integral part of the Dental Branch’s mission. In recent years the school has spent more than $1 million in unsponsored charity care for residents of Houston and Southeast Texas. Dental Branch faculty, staff and students devoted weeks to the care of Hurricane Katrina evacuees last September, and the annual Centennial Smiles event provides free dental care to hundreds of needy Houston-area residents.
As leader of the fund-raising efforts, Schwartz said he is determined to see that the new dental school is more than just another building going up.
“I want to create, not just build the best dental education institute in the world,” he said. “I am most interested in increasing the endowments, professorships, scholarships and research grants at the Dental Branch. I want to establish a certain caliber of school, and the building will be an extension that accommodates and complements what is inside.
“As we sit in the great Texas Medical Center, it is only natural that we should have the finest dental school in the world here,” Schwartz said.
By Erika Durham Hargrove, Public Affairs