Few states need access to quality dental care as much as West Virginia. Its flagship university is working hard to help deliver it.

So explains Joshua Coe in his interview with educators and students at West Virginia University’s School of Dentistry for Incisal Edge magazine’s spring edition.

Explains Coe:

“For more than two decades, West Virginia University’s dental school—located in Morgantown, it’s the only one of its kind in the state—has risen to that challenge by sending its students on “rural rotations,” a graduation requirement during which students live and work for six weeks at one of 63 partnering clinics, private practices and community centers across the state.

Dr. Richard Meckstroth helped found the rural-rotation program, which debuted in 1997. Now chairman of WVU’s Department of Dental Practice and Rural Health, he says the goal is to persuade students to stay in-state after they graduate by exposing them to off-the-beaten-track spots badly in need of dentists. ‘It helps them understand that, yes, you can have a successful practice in a rural community and do very well—but at the same time you can make a real difference for the working poor,” he says.’ “

WVUDental.exterior

GO WEST: The West Virginia University’s dental school in Morgantown.

Find out what students have to say, and what makes the program successful:  https://secure.viewer.zmags.com/publication/3f23a86d#/3f23a86d/30