Legislation Boosts Dental Education Opportunities in Wyoming |
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June 15, 2007 -- Wyoming residents can have their dental school costs forgiven under a new program previously approved by the Wyoming State Legislature and the University of Wyoming Board of Trustees.
The Dental Student Loan Repayment Program is intended to address a shortage of dentists in Wyoming.
As many as 10 students will be eligible to enroll in dental school this fall at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC, Lincoln) or Creighton University (Omaha, Neb.). A student who enrolls in dental school under this program must agree to practice within the state of Wyoming for three years or to reimburse the state for dental education costs, with interest, within five years after agreeing to enter the program.
"We've arranged for a total of 10 seats per year. Since a dental program will run for four years that is about 40 students that we'll be able to carry when the program is fully loaded," says Robert Kelley, dean of the College of Health Sciences. "Being a contract program, we'll expect, in time, those students to start coming back to Wyoming to practice dentistry in our state."
To be considered, the students or their parents or guardians must have been residents of Wyoming for at least five years before certification of eligibility for the program by UW. The program, developed in conjunction with the two Nebraska schools and the Wyoming Dental Association, is similar to the WWAMI medical education program.
"We don't have a dental school in the state of Wyoming so it's important for us to look for partners beyond our borders for dental education like we have with the University of Washington in our WWAMI program for medical education," says Kelley.
Both programs are administered for Wyoming by the UW College of Health Sciences.
Posted on Friday, June 15, 2007
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