Journal of the American College of Dentists

Manuscript
Retention of Underrepresented Minority Students
in Dental School
One Dental School’s Story
40
Ernestine S. Lacy, DDS
Barbara H. Miller, DDS
Sheryl A. Hornback, MA
Ann L. McCann, PhD
Jayne S. Reuben, PhD
Abstract
There is a large disparity between the proportions
of African-Americans, Hispanics, and
Native Americans in the general population
and in the dental profession. While these
underrepresented minorities (URMs) as a
group make up almost 30% of the United
States population, they constitute only about
6% of the nation’s dentists. Eliminating this
disparity is important in addressing access
to care for underrepresented groups. Texas
A&M Health Science Center Baylor College
of Dentistry (TAMHSC-BCD) enrolled greater
numbers and proportions of URM students
than any other non-minority school from
2006-2010. Strategies used to achieve this
level of diversity include a Whole File Review
process; career awareness activities for elementary,
junior high and high school students;
and academic enrichment programs for college
students and college graduates. Retaining
and graduating URM students is just as
important as enrolling them. TAMHSC-BCD’s
retention rate over the last five years is 95.7%
for all students and 92.5% for URM students.
A wide range of services aids in the retention
process. These services are available to all
students and include monitoring of students’
academic performance followed up with
academic advisement as appropriate, peer
tutoring, an alternative five-year curriculum,
professional psychological counseling, professional
learning assessments, social support;
and mentoring through student organizations.
The retention program at TAMHSC-BCD can
serve as a model for other dental and other
health professions schools seeking ways to
ensure the academic success of their URM
students. The more of these students we
enroll and graduate, the more the problem
of access to dental care is addressed.
There is a large disparity between
the percentages African-Americans,
Hispanics, and Native Americans
in the general population and the percentages
of those groups in the dental
profession. While these underrepresented
minorities (URMs) as a group make up
almost 30% of the United States population,
they constitute only about 6% of
the nation’s dentists (American Dental
Association, 2004; U.S. Census Bureau,
2010). For years, the American Dental
Education Association has been diligently
working with United States dental schools
to reduce and, ultimately, eliminate this
disparity by increasing the diversity of
the students that are admitted. However,
the percentage of URMs entering dental
school continues to remain significantly
below that of the general population.
Figure 1 shows the enrollment of firstyear
URM dental students in the United
States dental schools for the 2010–2011
academic year compared to the URMs in
the general United States population.
Why is it important to increase the
racial and ethnic diversity of dental
students and, ultimately, the dental
workforce? First, training racially and
ethnically diverse healthcare providers
is one of the keys to addressing the
problems of barriers to dental care. The
Surgeon General’s Report on Oral Health
points out that racial and ethnic minorities
experience a higher level of dental
problems than others (Sinkford et al,
2001). In a study conducted in California,
communities with high percentages of
African-American and Hispanic residents
were far more likely to have a shortage
of physicians than were other communities.
In addition, Hispanic physicians
were more likely to care for Hispanic
patients and African-American physicians
for African-American patients. Hispanic
physicians treated the greatest proportion
of uninsured patients, while African-
American physicians served more
Medicaid patients (Komaromy et al,
1996). This finding was corroborated
from two large national surveys of
physicians that suggested that minoritygroup
and female physicians were more
likely than others to serve minority,
poor, and Medicaid patients (Cantor et
al, 1996). A 2001 study of practice areas
of African-American dentists in Texas
showed that these dentists commonly
serve African-American patients (Solomon
et al, 2001). Furthermore, “not only are
minority practitioners more likely than
their White counterparts to practice in
underserved minority communities, but
minority practitioners, educators, and
researchers can influence other health
professionals to be more culturally sensi-
Dr. Lacy is the Director of
Student Development at
TAMHSC-BCD; eslacy@bcd.
tamhsc.edu. Drs. Miller and
McCann and Ms. Hornback
are also at TAMHSC-BCD in
the capacities of Executive
Director of Recruitment and
Admissions, Director of
Planning and Assessment, and
Educational Specialist, respectively;
Dr. Reuben is a clinical
associate professor at the
University of South Carolina
School of Medicine.
2011 Volume 78, Number 4