As legislators from York County who have co-sponsored a bill to support increased access to dental care in Maine, we demonstrate the sort of bi-partisan support that is lining up behind this issue.
If approved, LD 1798 would provide bond funds on a competitive basis to establish a teaching clinic at a dental school, and help expand a network of community dental clinics around the state. The University of New England’s proposed College of Dental Medicine could apply for these funds and we are of course pleased to partner with them in advocacy. But they, like us, recognize that this is not an issue limited to Biddeford or York County or Southern Maine. This is a statewide health care crisis, and we call on our fellow legislators to act now in support of this bill.
For many years various legislatures and state agencies have been talking about the problem of oral health in Maine, with thousands of Maine citizens lacking access to affordable oral health care. Numerous studies have reinforced stories of individuals who have suffered because of this issue, from children who couldn’t find care to adults seeking relief from dental pain through medication or substance abuse, from dialysis patients who could not get kidney transplants due to poor oral health to Emergency Room doctors who see 12,000 patients a year in Maine for oral health related problems. The shortage of dentists, especially in rural parts of the state, is well documented by the federal government and verified by real people who often wait months and drive hours to see a dentist.
While a dental school in Maine will not solve the problem entirely, the model that the University of New England is proposing will go a long way towards alleviating the shortage of oral health professionals in the state.
UNE is already working with Maine’s Gear-Up program and others in Maine’s education community to encourage Maine students to consider dentistry as a career, and plans to offer tuition discounts to students from Maine that they will recruit in collaboration with practicing professionals from around the state. Many of these students will return in their fourth year of study to clinical sites all over Maine, living and working in their home communities for 6 to 12 months. Research indicates health care professionals are more likely to stay and practice where they do their rotations. But even if few of these students did remain, 4th year students on these rotations would provide an estimated 60,000 patient-visits to those most in need.
As we’ve already noted, the bond issue the Legislature is considering is not for UNE, but for the establishment of a teaching clinic as well as the enhancement of community health clinics around the state to increase their oral health care capacity. Whoever proves best-qualified to fulfill the objectives of this bill, public funding to private entities is not new for Maine. On a similar competitive basis bond funds have been awarded to many of Maine’s best private enterprises, including the Jackson Laboratories on Mount Desert Island, the Gulf of Maine Research Institute on Portland’s waterfront, and even the University of New England for research labs in its new College of Pharmacy, College of Osteopathic Medicine, and Marine Research Center.
In this economy we need to be prudent about any bonds we choose to support ”“ keeping both short-term and long-term investments in mind. The good news is that this bond would generate an estimated $37.5 million in economic activity related to the building phase, and approximately $35 million in on-going payroll in relation to the development. That is a big win-win for the economy, and when combined with the increased patient visits for those in need of dental care, and even better win for Maine citizens.
— State Sen. Jon Courtney is a Republican from Springvale. State Rep. Gary Connor is a Democrat from Kennebunk.
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