To begin a new decade, West Virginia University School of Dentistry dean Dr. Anthony ‘Tom’ Borgia, welcomed faculty and staff to the spring 2020 semester with a word of thanks.

“We are a team. It does not matter which position you have, you are just as valuable as anybody else is. Without each person doing their job, we cannot run efficiently,” he said. “If we have a dental assistant, receptionist or an employee in central sterilization, their absence effects the school’s operations more than if the dean is not here. That’s how important you are to us.”

Prior to the fall and spring semesters, Borgia addresses successes, challenges and goals for both academics and patient care.

Budget

The WVU School of Dentistry continues to improve its financial stability while planning for growth in programs and services. “That is telling of everyone doing their job,” the dean said.

Academics 

A number of department chairs are anticipating welcoming new faculty members in 2020. With the support of a federal grant, the pediatric dentistry department can add an expert to the team to continue an excellent level of care in the current clinic and in anticipation of providing specialty care to the future WVU Medicine Children’s hospital.

With plans to begin a department of oral biology, a search is underway for a researcher. A search is also ongoing for a board certified orthodontics program director in anticipation of the retirement of the current orthodontics department chair and program director. A committee is also leading an effort to recruit an additional oral surgeon to add to the dental school’s team.

The prosthodontics department needs additional faculty and the department of dental hygiene welcomed a new hygienist to their faculty this semester.

The dean announced the addition of a vice dean position to the dental school’s administrative team.

Facilities

Bids will soon be sought to begin renovations to the school’s dated urgent care clinic. An estimated $2 million will be invested in upgrading space that has gone largely untouched for several decades.

Clinic space for the department of endodontics is being renovated to accommodate the addition of state of the art cone beam computed tomography technology. The diagnostic sciences department is adding similar technology. With the addition in diagnostic sciences, patients at the Health Sciences Center campus clinics will not have to travel to the Suncrest Towne Centre clinics for imaging.

In February, the dean is a scheduled guest for a Dental Trades Alliance meeting in Chicago. He will tout the success of the school’s center for dental innovation made possible through a unique collaboration between academics and industry. The goal is to share gratitude for a program that brings the most technologically advanced instrumentation and products to schools at no cost and stress the importance of the relationship to the success of oral health education and patient care.

Capital Campaign

In 2020, in coordination with the WVU Foundation, a capital campaign will be launched to encourage investment in the dental school’s future facilities planning. A $15 million goal has been set with generous donors already contributing since the November Day of Giving philanthropic fundraising campaign.