Delta Dental Plan of Maine will donate $600,000 to the University of New England College of Dental Medicine, the two parties said Monday.
The grant will be used to develop a scholarship and loan-repayment program. It’s part of a larger effort to build a “pipeline of UNE-educated dentists to [work in] designated rural and underserved areas of Maine.” Fifteen of Maine’s 16 counties are federally designated as dental health professional shortage areas.
UNE has Maine’s only dental school.
In 2010, Delta Dental Plan of Maine and its partner plans in New Hampshire and Vermont provided a $2.3 million lead gift toward the UNE’s dental college fundraising campaign.
The college opened in 2013 and now has 250 students, including 70 from Maine. The first class will graduate in May 2017.
Delta Dental is part of Concord, N.H.-based Northeast Delta Dental Co., which administers benefits to 832,000 people in Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont. Delta Dental Plan of Maine is based in Saco.
