Dental students given something to smile about

Dental students given something to smile about

01 Apr 2009

Dental students at La Trobe University's Bendigo campus have even more reason to smile, with $1.9 million dollars worth of the latest training facilities at their finger tips.

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Transcript

La Trobe University’s dental students will have even more facilities to sink their teeth into with the unveiling of the Dental Schools 1.9 million dollar facility comprising of a 30 chair simulation laboratory and a 32 chair general purpose lab. Speaking at the launch in March the Victorian Minister for Health the Honourable Daniel Andrews also announced the State Governments plan to build a 2 million dollar 10 seat training clinic for dental students. It is part of a long term push to increase the dental workforce in the regions.

Minister Daniel Andrews:
I’m very pleased today to announce the Government will provide a further 2 million dollars to La Trobe University in order that they will be able to set up 10 chair dental clinic at a location yet to be determined that will then mean that there will be greater capacity for the clinical placement component of the undergraduate education that is so important for the dentists and the other important oral health workers that are critical for this community and are critical for communities right across the state.

La Trobe University’s Pro-Vice Chancellor Regional Professor Hal Swerrisen welcomed the minister’s announcement. He said it fits in with La Trobe’s reputation of providing Health Science courses that are committed to addressing the shortage of health professionals in rural communities.

Professor Hal Swerrisen:
In about three or four years we will producing dental and oral health graduates who will be working in rural Victoria providing services particually in the public dental system and that will mean we will see an improvement in access to dental services and oral health sevices.

Narration:
Professor Peter Wilson, Head of the School of Dentistry and Oral Health said the Dental School has aclear vision for the future.

Professor Peter Wilson:
The purpose of this school is to try and address the rural and regional worforce shortage. And we are doing this in a number of ways. Firstly the students are being trained in rural and regional setting. They start in Bendigo and they go out to major clinics in Wodonga, Mildura and Melton and then they may go to smaller clinics around those major clinics. So that’s our first approach is that we give the students experience where we think they might like to work. The second approach which I am particularly pleased with is the preferential selection of rural and regional students.

The dental program selection process will give preference to applicants from regional areas adding extra points to their enter score to make their application more competitive. Research has shown that regional students who train regionally tend to stay once they graduate.

Professor Hal Swerrisen:
We’ve made sure that we can create opportunities for rural and regional students by providing an incentive scheme for them to take up our places.

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