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James J. Koelbl, D.D.S., M.S., M.J., dean of the College of Dental Medicine, was interviewed by the about the new 51Ʒ��dental school that will admit its first class in 2013. 

The story cites statistics from the Muskie School of Public Service at the University of Southern Maine that indicate that Maine is even more in need of dentists than most of America. The Pine Tree State has 48 dentists per 100,000 residents, compared with the U.S. average of 64 per 100,000. Further, those dentists who are in Maine, the Muskie School reported, are bunched up in more populated areas, such as the Portland area.

Koelbl explained that UNE's program is designed to help address those issues by placing its fourth-year students in satellite dental clinics in rural areas that provide services to underserved populations. The college will also will favor applicants who have shown an interest in community service.

Frances Miliano, president of the Augusta-based Maine Dental Association, said that UNE's College of Dental Medicine is "going to have a kind of public health bent in the school and will be gearing their students toward going out to underserved areas for their clinical rotations, so that’ll be a good thing to target those areas. I think any time you can get folks into those areas and expose them to those things, it might help debunk stereotypes about what those places are like. Anytime you increase exposure you increase the odds that something will click and they’ll want to stay and work in those areas — that they’ll see the pluses of some of those areas and decide to set down roots there.”