UNLV welcomes first dental class

Jennifer Knight

Monday, Aug. 26, 2002 | 8:44 a.m.

After two career changes and a 2,500-mile move across the country with his wife and three children, Peter Smith, 30, sat among other new dental school students and finally felt like he was in the right place.

"Seeing all this support today, I think, was the greatest reward in the hunt for what we've been after," Smith said during a ceremony Friday to mark the University of Nevada, Las Vegas dental school's first class. "There's no way to not succeed."

Smith, who had been working as an apprentice furniture maker, said he could never quite find his calling -- until one day he turned to his wife and said, "I think I want to be a dentist."

"I thought he was crazy," his wife, Noel Smith, said. "Then, I was very supportive."

The couple packed all of their things, left Albany, N.Y., and headed for Las Vegas before Smith was even admitted to the school.

That was several months ago. Now Smith was to sit beside 75 classmates today, the dental school's first day.

Half of those students are, like Smith, from out of state.

For a venture that received its share of criticism before opening its doors, the school has come a long way.

The U.S. surgeon general's office gave the school its blessing Friday in a taped message.

More than 1,200 students had applied to the four-year program -- which amounts to one of every five dental applicants in the nation.

"This is such a historic moment for all of you in the class and all of us at the university" UNLV President Carol Harter said at the inauguration ceremony. "This is a distinction that is yours and yours uniquely."

At least five years of planning went into the dental school before it was funded by the Legislature, said state Sen. Ray Rawson, R-Las Vegas, who was instrumental in getting the legislative approval.

The cost to the state this year will be about $2.1 million for 76 students. The school will add about 75 students per year for three years until enrollment tops out at 300, at a cost of $4.8 million a year in state funding.

With $15,000 to $30,000 a year in tuition and fees, the school will pay for more than half of the operating costs involved.

Expenses are high partly because the school will use cutting-edge dental equipment and teaching technology. All students will be given laptops on loan. Textbooks will be provided on CD-ROM, and homework assignments and notes will also be written electronically -- making for a virtually paperless school.

"Everything is top of the line and state of the art here," student Brent Adams said. "That's what attracted me to UNLV."

Although critics might balk at the school's pricetag during the current state budget crisis, Rawson said the monetary outlay is worthwhile.

"A dental education is expensive," Rawson said. "I've served 18 years and every year we've been behind the budget. You have to say, if not now, when?"

Rawson, a dentist by trade, has volunteered to teach head and neck anatomy this semester to save the college the cost of hiring a full-time professor.

The hope is that the School of Dentistry's class of 2006 will stay in Las Vegas to practice.

Nevada ranks 50th in the nation in available dentists per population. It also has the highest rate of dental disease in the nation, Rawson said.

First-year students will begin their clinical experience next year, when they are expected to work with under-served populations that don't have access to dental care.