Thank you for bringing the crisis in dental school faculty to the attention of JADA readers. As we consider the multi-faceted problem of faculty recruitment and retention, an effective response will require the efforts of all stakeholders in dental education, employing a variety of local and national strategies.
Our most recent survey of dental school deans indicates that the shortage continues to grow, with up to 350 budgeted, full-time positions now open in U.S. dental schools. As a former dean at two dental schools, I know that faculty recruitment and retention are the foremost concern of dental school deans across the United States.
While I was dean at the University of Louisville School of Dentistry, we successfully recruited midcareer clinicians as one means to meet the need for faculty. As president of the American Dental Education Association, or ADEA (the House of Delegates of the American Association of Dental Schools formally changed our name during our annual session), feeding the pipeline of future faculty is a top priority of our association.
As stated in the report issued by the American Association of Dental Schools, "Future of Dental School Faculty: Report of the President’s Task Force," the ability of dental education to prepare dentists for the next millennium is built on the pillars of a well-qualified faculty.
Unless interventions occur soon to develop, recruit and retain future faculty and to create new models of delivering dental education, faculty shortages will affect the quality of dental education and the ability of dental education to produce an adequate number of practitioners to meet the oral health needs of the public. Oral and craniofacial research, and our ability to develop innovative and more effective procedures for our patients, will also suffer.
ADEA is moving aggressively to implement recommendations from the report of the President’s Task Force. We are also collaborating with the ADA’s Council on Dental Education and Licensure; with a task force comprised of the dental specialty academies and associations; with policy-makers in Washington, D.C.; and with others to address the faculty crisis. We look forward to the ADA’s Future of Dentistry report as another means of raising awareness and promoting and developing strategies to address the critical problem of future dental school faculty.
Should your readers wish to access the "Future of Dental School Faculty: Report of the President’s Task Force," it can be downloaded from the ADEA Web site at: "www.aads.jhu.edu/DEPR/Future_Faculty_Front.htm".
Once again, thank you for calling attention to this issue, which is so vital to the future of dental education, the practice of dentistry and, ultimately, to the oral health of the public.
