Dental Student Outreach at the 2009 MDA Annual Convention
Conference Emphasizes Maine Dentist Shortage
By Abigail Curtis
BDN Staff
ROCKPORT, Maine — The dentists who came this weekend to the Samoset Resort for the annual Maine Dental Association convention enjoyed the chance to brush up on new developments in their industry and catch up with old friends.
That’s an emphasis on “old,” many dentists said ruefully.
“We’re all old,” said Dr. William Cadoo of Ellsworth, who said that he would like to find a younger dentist who could practice in his office.
“I was planning for retirement until two years ago, when the stock market tanked,” Cadoo said. “What I’m looking for is somebody who could be my dentist — somebody my patients would be happy with, too.”
Cadoo is far from the only dentist in the state who is concerned about the future. Maine has just one dentist per 3,400 residents, whereas the U.S. average is one per 1,700. This can lead to practices that aren’t accepting new patients, or practices with months of wait times to get an appointment. Additionally, Maine Dental Asso-ciation members say, about 20 percent of dentists here will be ready for retirement within the next five years.
That’s why dentists like Cadoo were especially eager to speak with 40 young people who were special guests at the convention. They are dental students at places such as the University of California at San Francisco, Tufts, Boston University and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, and they just might be the future of dentistry in Maine, according to the Maine Dental Association officials who invited them.
Gov. John Baldacci even wrote the students a letter of welcome.
“We do not have enough dentists here,” he wrote. “So I ask, as you complete your education, to consider Maine as a career destination.”
It sounds good to Todd Walker. The Tufts University dental student attended last year’s pilot student program at the MDA convention. He said that he and his wife fell in love with Maine, and he’d like to settle here after his 2010 graduation. Older dentists clustered around him, pressing business cards into his hands and offering their help.
“That’s what brought us here,” Walker said. “The feeling of interacting with people.”
“Maine needs dentists, and it’s good that the [association] puts this together,” said Dr. James Sevey of Creative Dental Solutions in Bangor.
Sevey said that he is the only dentist at his busy practice, and he is looking for an associate because he is turning away as many as six patients a day.
“You never know what can happen,” Sevey said. “If you were living in Boston, you could probably get someone pretty quickly. But in Maine, it could take a couple of years to find the right person.”
Ana Mattos, a student from Boston University who is originally from Brazil, said that after her trip to Maine for the convention, she is considering practicing here when she graduates. Although that is three years away and anything could happen, she liked what she saw of the state — and its dentists.
“It’s more welcoming,” she said. “It’s less aggressive than being in Boston and the bigger cities.”
While that could apply to the Maine lifestyle in general, many of the students said that competition for dental patients can be cutthroat in other places. Maine’s obvious need for dentists is a draw that organizers highlighted along with the state’s proximity to nature and cultural attractions such as Bangor’s American Folk Festival.
Shauna Woody, 29, is a student at the University of California at San Francisco who is originally from West Virginia. As she decides where to settle after graduation, she’s looking for a place to raise a family.
“Everybody’s very friendly and welcoming,” she said. “I have a good impression of Maine.”
Dental Convention Hopes To Attract Young Dentists To Maine
June 19, 2009 Reported By: Keith Shortall MPBS
If you're staying at the Samoset in Rockport this weekend, you'll have no trouble finding a dentist. The Maine Dental Association Annual Convention got underway at the seaside resort today. And while the parking lot and convention rooms are filled, the industry is bracing for what's expected to be a serious shortage of dentists over the next decade and beyond.
In the exhibitor's area of the Dental Convention, there are vendors from toothpaste and equipment manufacturers, insurance companies and even a collection agency. Across the hall, training sessions are underway, including a PowerPoint presentation on how to recognize the signs of dental problems caused by use of the illicit street drug crystal meth.
But what may particularly unusual at this year's convention is the number of fresh young faces in attendance.
"My name is Ramnik Singh, I go to dental school at the University of California At San Francisco."
Singh, who graduates next spring, is one of 50 young dental students from all over the US and Canada who have been invited to attend the conference. As an incentive, they're offered a $200 dollar travel stipend. It's just one of the ways that the dental community in Maine is attempting to get ahead of a problem that's looming on the horizon.
"It's extremely difficult to attract qualified students to come to Maine. That's the bottom line," says Dr. Bruce Kilgour. Kilgour has been in practice in Augusta since 1977 and is currently looking to add an associate. He says that can be a challenge, as young dentists, emerging from school with more than 200,000 dollars in debt, believe they have to set up in urban areas like Boston in order to be able to pay that debt off.
"Young dentists down there are struggling financially to make ends meet," Kilgour continues. "They have their mothers working in the practice. It's very, very difficult. They don't want to come to Maine because they look at it as a rural area, and they don't feel that they can support the practice and lifestyle that they deserve."
Keith Shortall: "Do they think they're going to come here and just pull teeth?"
Bruce Kilgour: "Their conception is they're going to treat moose and deer. It's bizarre. Where in fact in Maine actually financially you do better because the cost of living is less. The number of patients that really need treatment is here."
That perception problem is bad enough says Kilgour, but add to that a wave of retiring Maine dentists that is expected in the next decade.
"Absolutely. It's going to be a terrible situation in the state of Maine. Most of my peers my age will all be retiring about the same time, and that's going to leave a huge void."
Enter the Maine Dental Association, which is heading off the decay in the dentist population through a number of programs. One is inviting the dental students to the convention; another is reaching out to the dental schools.
Frances Miliano is executive director of the Maine Dental Association, which represents about 90 percent of the 600 or so practicing dentists in Maine. "We've been going to the dental schools primarily in New England with some lobster roll lunches, touting the benefits of living and practicing in Maine." Miliano says one other strategy for replenishing that membership over time is to target high school students in Maine.
Miliano thinks that "maybe the very best way is to grow our own, to get Maine kids to consider going to dental school."
KTS: "So the theory is if you've got a student who grew up in say, Milo, the chances that they might go back and practice there are better than trying to get someone from San Francisco."
FM: "That's right. The Maine residents will come back when they graduate."
A good example of that theory is Dr. Mark Carrera who just began his practice in his native Bangor.
"It's where I grew up. It's very comfortable for me, and it's where I want my kids to grow up. It was a big decision, because I had several job offers in other areas, even in the state of Maine. But Bangor is really where I wanted to be."
As for dental student Ramnik Singh, Maine is still a possible future home for her practice, and if there is some doubt, it's not because she's fears she won't be able to pay off her student debt here:
"I came here. It's a beautiful place, beautiful landscape - very nice. I hear it's a good place to raise kids, to raise a family. I think I'm kind of scared of the winters!"
The Maine Dental Association Annual Convention continues through tomorrow at the Samoset Resort in Rockport.
