East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine

East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine (ECU SoDM) is the dental school at East Carolina University. It is North Carolina's second Dental School. The school began classes in the fall of 2011. The ECU SoDM was established specifically to address the shortage of dentists in the rural regions of North Carolina. The SoDM serves North Carolina statewide by educating more dentists, with the primary focus of student recruitment being students who desire to return to rural and underserved areas to provide oral health care.

North Carolina is 47th in the nation in terms of dentists per capita and is especially lacking in dentists in the eastern part of the state. There are four counties, Tyrrell, Jones, Hyde and Camden County, North Carolina|Camden]] without any primary practicing dentists. To remedy this situation, ECU and UNC-Chapel Hill have jointly developed a plan to increase the number of dentists in the state and to establish the ECU School of Dental Medicine.

The SoDM plans to create 10 community service learning centers to be located in rural and underserved areas throughout the state. The fourth-year students will be learning and providing care for the community for one year in these community centers.

History

The first mention of a School of Dental Medicine came from Phyllis Horns, then Interim Vice Chancellor for Health Sciences. On March 19, 2002, Vice Chancellor Horns announced at the Faculty Senate that ECU...
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