Innovating dentistry: Reducing debt, improving access and measuring disease

Academic leaders, engineers and entrepreneurs showcase bold solutions at the School of Dentistry’s Innovation Day

Private dental education is projected to cost more than $900,000 within the next 10 years. One private school of dental medicine in Utah decided to make bold changes to head off the student debt threat to future enrollment.

Innovation Day at the School of Dentistry on Monday, March 30, highlighted new approaches to reducing student debt, improving usability for learners with mobility challenges and measuring the progression of dental disease.

During morning presentations held in the Knight Cancer Research Building Auditorium, Frank Licari, D.D.S., M.P.H., M.B.A., dean of Roseman University College of Dental Medicine, outlined the action steps his university took to reshape its dental curriculum. The college condensed its program from four years to three and set ambitious goals to double the dental college’s revenue and cut students’ debt by 25%.

Starting in 2017, Licari said his team updated the curriculum, retooled data analysis methods, launched live dashboards, empowered teams to operate independently and created systems that increased the number of patients cared for by students.

The result is a more than 25% reduction in tuition and fees, a steady climb in enrollment and a doubling of clinic revenue.

Learners will owe less after they graduate. The 2026 Roseman class enrolled in the three-year program who took out the maximum amount of loans will graduate with about $380,000 in student debt in June. The cohort that graduated from the college’s last four-year program and secured the maximum loan amount will graduate this month owing about $515,000, according to Licari.

Roseman University of Health Sciences is a private nonprofit academic institution with campuses in Utah and Nevada.

Accessible sim clinic

Foot pedals control the dental drills used on the dozens of mannequins in the School of Dentistry’s Sirona Simulation Clinic. This is a limitation for those with mobility challenges. It’s an issue the school is working to resolve as it prepares to welcome learners who use wheelchairs or other mobility devices.

Bill Emery, an engineer and product innovator with A-dec, an Oregon-based dental equipment manufacturer, described its partnership with the school to redesign the station for learners with disabilities. The redesign raises tabletops, repositions controls and drains, and replaces foot controls with hand controls to ensure wheelchair accessibility.

Emery emphasized understanding the problem before offering solutions.

“The No. 1 rule is to listen and observe,” said Emery. “The second is to ask better questions.” Gathering feedback, he added, is essential for successful innovation.

Measuring oral disease

One dental entrepreneur is using 3D scanning to capture millions of images of the internal structure of teeth in seconds. The process detects and tracks the progression of oral disease. The technology, optical coherence tomography, or OCT, is commonly used in ophthalmology to capture images of the retina. It has been adapted to take images of teeth.

The imaging technology was invented by a team in 1991, including David Huang, M.D., Ph.D., director of research at Casey Eye Institute.

Chris Ciriello, D.D.S., CEO of Boston-based Perceptive, uses OCT and artificial intelligence to detect oral diseases earlier and measure disease progression. This technique replaces uncertainty with evidence, giving dental professionals new tools to measure disease over time.

For example, cracks in teeth can’t be seen in two dimensional X-rays. Gum disease often goes undetected until it results in bone loss, Ciriello noted. The dental profession needs new ways to identify biological markers and operationalize diagnostic reporting so treatment plans are guided by data.

Annual exploration

This was the third School of Dentistry Innovation Day. Its purpose is to introduce dental employees and learners to industry leaders, designers, inventors, entrepreneurs and emerging technologies to advance creativity and growth at the school.

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Story by Rhonda Morin, APR