Dental clinic and education program comes to Vermont

Campus to house modern classrooms and serve as Medicaid clinic

In an effort to advance dental care and education, an innovative dental oral health education center is slated to come to Vermont in 2027.  

The Vermont State Dental Society, University of Detroit Mercy, and Sens. Bernie Sanders, D-Vt., and Peter Welch, D-Vt., partnered to create a new dental clinic and education program that would bring University of Detroit Mercy students to Vermont to complete their final two years of education. The intent is to strengthen the dental care provider pipeline and expand access to care across the state, according to a news release. 

The University of Detroit Mercy-Vermont campus will include modern classrooms with on-site clinics to support its clinical education program and serve as a public health Medicaid clinic to provide dental care to eligible patients. The new dental facility will provide dental services at a reduced rate and will accept Medicaid to increase access to care and serve the uninsured populations. 

Patrick Gallivan, executive director of the Vermont State Dental Society, said the process of getting the program off the ground has been largely a grassroots effort. 

“It’s an innovative program. This allows us to get into the game of dental education with a trusted partner. I couldn’t be more delighted that the University of Detroit Mercy has chosen Vermont to expand,” Mr. Gallivan said. “The Vermont State Dental Society is kind of the boots on the ground, the University of Detroit Mercy is bringing the wonderful programs they already have to Vermont, and together it’s a homerun.” 

The new program received its accreditation from the Commission of Dental Accreditation, and both senators are working to secure $4.6 million in federal funding. The funding was recently approved by the appropriations committee and needs to be passed by the House and Senate before being signed into law.

Once implemented, students will sign up for the Vermont program at the University of Detroit Mercy. This means they will attend school in Detroit for the first two years and then attend the Vermont campus for the final two. Mr. Gallivan said the purpose of the program is twofold: to support underserved populations through the Medicaid clinic, and to help address ongoing workforce issues by encouraging students to stay in Vermont after graduation.

“Our goal is basically, by having them here for two years, we’re sure they’re going to be turned onto Vermont and the beauty of the state and the way of life and it will be natural for them to remain,” Mr. Gallivan said.

The impetus came in 2023 when Mr. Gallivan received an email from the University of Detroit Mercy expressing interest in expanding to Vermont, which does not have a dental school. Mr. Gallivan held a meeting with the dean and associate dean of the school, who then presented to the Board. The Vermont State Dental Society subsequently announced to its membership that they signed a memorandum of understanding to explore the idea of creating a satellite dental campus in the state. Mr. Gallivan said the process included many conversations with local, state and federal partners. 

Starting fall 2025, the partnership will include two years of foundational and preclinical education at the University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry campus in Detroit, Michigan, followed by two years of clinical and didactic education at the new Vermont dental clinic.

Now that the program is in motion, the current hope is to find a space that can fit both a 40-chair clinic and rooms for classes and faculty. The tentative location for the new center will be in Colchester in Chittenden County.

“We’re looking at lots of sites and we hope to be able to announce a partnership with a site in the not-too-distant future,” Mr. Gallivan said.