Bulletin

Issue: May/June 2007

News

Dental bonanza for regions

New La Trobe dental school based in Bendigo

The bigest – and best – smiles may soon be in regional Victoria, thanks to major dental initiatives in which La Trobe University is a key player.

By the turn of the decade, clinical placements in regional centres from the new La Trobe University dental school – combined with a growing number of graduates from its existing dental hygienists’ and therapists’ course – will start making a significant contribution to improving the health of people in country Victoria.

Soon after, from 2012, the University will begin graduating an extra 50 dentists a year. According to Professor Marc Tennant, Head of La Trobe’s Department of Oral Health, this will lead to a substantial amelioration of Australia’s acute shortage of dentists.

The development of the La Trobe dental school builds on the University’s partnership with Dental Health Services Victoria. From 2008, fifty students each year will begin their five-year course, with the first regional clinical rotations starting in about 2010.

Professor Tennant and La Trobe’s Acting Dean of Health Sciences, Professor Hal Swerissen, are finalising curriculum plans and accreditation procedures for the new Bendigo-based dental school following the Victorian Government’s Budget contribution of $1.5 million towards the school.

Both men describe it as a ‘wonderful initiative’, paving the way for a new generation of dental professionals trained to meet the needs of regional Victoria.

‘It’s only the second new dental program in Australia in 60 years,’ says Professor Tennant. The first was at Griffith University on Queensland’s Gold Coast about four years ago, which he also headed. ‘And the La Trobe school will be the first regionally-based dental school in Australia’s history.’

He says it’s an even more exciting development for Victoria’s rapidly growing north-eastern region, and for southern NSW, following support for a similar school in the Federal Budget for Charles Sturt University in Albury, which plans to open in the coming years.

‘The La Trobe program is planning to have one of its three clinical facilities at Albury-Wodonga, and this will enable us to develop some great educational and professional relationships in that region for the benefit of the local community.’ Australia currently has eight dental schools, each graduating about 50 dentists annually.

The new La Trobe school will boost Australia’s dentists’ work force by ten percent per year. With similar numbers anticipated from the Charles Sturt initiative and at least one other university on the east coast, the number of dentistry graduates by early to mid next decade is expected to increase by more than 20 per cent.

Professor Tennant says the majority of the first two years of the La Trobe course will be focused at the Bendigo campus. The clinical program, which starts at third-year, will be conducted in the three country centres.

He says dental students will be located in clinics associated with local health clinics.

‘Working with the dental profession in these locations is a vital part of having a vibrant dental school. The educational component of clinical rotations will be supported by the La Trobe staff.

‘The support of the Victorian dental profession has been wonderful, and with this new development the profession can clearly see that the government is helping to address the workforce crisis that is hitting dentistry.’

As well as the State Government’s $1.5 million contribution to setting up the new school, Victorian Health Minister, Bronwyn Pike, says the government will provide more than $800,000 a year when the dental school is fully operational – for scholarships and to support pre-clinical and clinical training. La Trobe University and Dental Health Services Victoria will also make significant contributions.

The establishment of La Trobe University’s new dental school follows the opening in mid 2006 of a one million dollar, 30 chair oral health teaching laboratory at the Bendigo campus.

The Oral Health degree, which trains dental hygienists and therapists, enrolled 12 students last year and 20 this year. It will offer its full complement of 30 places next year to train oral health therapists over six semesters.

A man of many roles

Head of La Trobe University’s Department of Oral Health, Professor Marc Tennant, is a man of many roles. Most relate to boosting the quality of rural and remote dental health care throughout Australia.

With a doctorate of Dental Health Science, he is Foundation Director of the Centre of Rural and Remote Oral Health in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry at the University of Western Australia (UWA) – Australia’s first centre devoted to this issue.

He was Clinical Dean of Griffith University’s School of Dentistry – thus heading Australia’s first new dental school in 60 years, where he remains as an Adjunct Professor.

Professor Tennant is the former Deputy Head of the School of Dentistry in Western Australia where, with a small team, he played a key role in the redevelopment of the school. He is also a consultant to a number of other universities that are currently developing dental programs.

His interest in rural and remote dental care has resulted in a wide range of research and teaching roles – the latest of which he carries out on a flyin- fly-out basis at La Trobe’s Bendigo campus.

Professor Tennant began his academic career in the mid 1990s after he completed his dental training and doctorate studies at UWA.

Over the last ten years his research has moved to include a leadership role in national rural and remote oral health research. Originally his doctoral studies were in vascular biology. This research deals with the biology of the use of autologous vein grafts to improve arterial circulation – a technique used in coronary artery surgery to bypass arterial blockages.