In keeping with Touro’s mission to support the underserved, the clinical services that Touro’s dental school offers the public while students are in training focuses on the underinsured, uninsured and the indigent.
By Eric Berger, JTA
Aliza Gettenberg of Lawrence, New York, knew she wanted to become a dentist after someone’s description of the occupation as the “perfect combination of doctor, engineer and artist” struck a chord with her.
But first she had to find a dental school that fit her professional vision. She sought a program focused on dentistry’s digital future, where she could apply her engineering interests. And as an observant Jew, she preferred a school that wouldn’t require her to compromise her religious lifestyle.
Now a third-year student at the Touro College of Dental Medicine, Gettenberg believes she found the perfect fit. She recounted the recent experience of using a 3-D scanner and printer in the school’s lab to examine the mouth of someone who had lost teeth — and then taking advantage of new milling machines and cutting-edge equipment to fabricate a crown for the patient the very same day.
“We’re not only trained in the digital and technical skills, but also in empathy and patient communication,” Gettenberg said. “The best part of it is that you’re really helping people. It’s a patient-centered approach.”
Not every dental school offers training in the latest techniques, but Touro opened its digital dentistry lab in 2020. The school is helping cultivate a new generation of dentists adept at using innovative tools that offer patients faster and more precise solutions to their problems.
For example, dentists can now use digital tools to create crowns, dentures or retainers in as little as an hour — a process that previously took days or even weeks. Touro also has a simulation lab where students can practice on lifelike mannequins.
“We’ve established our curriculum based on new technologies in digital dentistry, and we have a full-service, in-house digital lab and training center,” said Dr. Ronnie Myers, the dean of Touro’s dental school.
“We hear from applicants that one of the things that draws them to us is our digital footprint. But we also give students analog training because they might wind up in an office that doesn’t have digital capabilities.”
For observant Jewish students, the dental school — located at Touro’s medical school campus in Valhalla, New York — has extra appeal because it provides a supportive environment for students’ religious needs.
There are no classes on Jewish holidays, the school cooperates with Sabbath-observant dental residency programs, and kosher food is available. There are also minyan services and plenty of opportunities for learning Talmud and Torah.
To be clear, Touro is a big draw both for Jews and non-Jews. In fact, Touro gets about 2,500 applicants per year — over one-fifth of the nationwide total of 12,000 dental school applicants annually, according to Myers.
When Touro opened its dental program in 2016, it became the first new dental school in New York State in nearly 50 years. Until recently, Touro limited class sizes to 110 because of the limited number of clinic slots available.
But then Touro acquired a research center in Albuquerque, New Mexico, part of which is being turned into a dental clinic. Accreditation has allowed Touro to double the number of dental students admitted per year, to 210.
This June, Touro will be sending its first cohort of clinical students to the New Mexico campus, which also will have facilities for kosher food and religious services.
In keeping with Touro’s mission to support the underserved, the clinical services that Touro’s dental school offers the public while students are in training focuses on the underinsured, uninsured and the indigent.
“We are here to serve the community and those in need,” Myers said. “It is the university mission, the college of dental medicine’s mission and it is paramount in what we do.”
Uriel Waldman, who grew up in an Orthodox Jewish home in West Hempstead, New York, said he chose to study at Touro because it allows him to balance his Jewish observances with the rigors of dental school.
“There is no need to make up for missed work because Touro’s classes are all arranged around the holiday schedule,” said Waldman, who is in his fourth year. “That makes a huge difference in happiness and education.”
Waldman, who plans to become an orthodontist, said the digital dentistry program also has given him a leg up in the field.
Without 3-D technology, dentists and orthodontists must capture the contours of a mouth by having a patient bite into a soft material and then wait for it to set, which takes more time than using contemporary digital tools.
“I feel like I will be ahead of the game in digital dentistry and orthodontics because much of orthodontics uses these tools of AI and algorithms and state-of-the-art technology,” said Waldman, noting the training he has gotten at Touro using those tools.
Dr. David Katz, vice dean and associate professor of dental medicine at Touro, said, “We like to think that we are on — and will continue to be on — the cutting edge of all of technological innovations that are occurring in the medical and dental field.”
The university also offers a fast-track program, the Touro Dental Honors Pathway, that allows students to shave a year off the time needed to become a dentist. Rather than spend four years in college and then four in dental school, the Honors Pathway offers qualifying high school graduates a seven-year track that confers both bachelor’s and dental degrees.
“That essentially brings individuals right into the fold at the very beginning so that they have a pathway from their undergraduate studies,” Myers said. “These are super-committed students, and we offer them a program that saves them a year of time and tuition.”
Myers tries to meet with prospective students and convey the school’s goals that each of them “be the best possible clinician and oral health care provider they can be.” It’s a culture the entire faculty supports, he said.
“We have, culturally, a humanistic environment in which our faculty recognize that students are No. 1,” Myers said. “They have open-door policies so that students feel comfortable and welcome in discussing anything from dentistry to questions that they might have about their goals. They know that the faculty and staff are here for them.”
Ultimately, Myers said, the dental school’s extremely high application rate and strong position in applicants’ matching preferences are signs that the dental school, though less than a decade old, has become a highly desirable destination for aspiring dentists.
This story was sponsored by the Touro College and University System, which supports Jewish continuity and community while serving a diverse population of over 19,000 students across 30 schools. This article was produced by JTA’s native content team.
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