Loyola University is closing its 79-year-old dental school, in part because people are getting fewer cavities.
"Unlike the past, fewer dentists are required to care for the population," the Rev. Raymond Baumhart, president of the Roman Catholic university, said in a statement Monday.The American Dental Association disagreed. Although the oral health of U.S. children has improved, there is an increasing need to prevent and treat gum disease and oral cancer as the population ages, ADA spokesman Philip Weintraub said.
"Dentistry is more than just filling cavities," he said.
The four-year dental school, which has 260 students and 255 faculty members, will close next June, Loyola's trustees decided on Friday.
The university cited, in addition to advances in dentistry, rising costs and declining numbers of qualified applicants. Applications to U.S. dental schools dropped from 8,852 in 1981 to 5,123 in 1990, Loyola said.
The university said the declining pool of applicants hit private dental schools like Loyola particularly hard because their tuition is much higher than that of public and state-supported schools. Loyola tuition is about $15,600 a year.
Students who will be seniors this fall will graduate as scheduled. Juniors and sophomores will receive help in transferring to other dental schools.
The 65 students accepted for the fall will be discouraged from enrolling.