UDM readying to move into new dental school in Jan. 2008

The transformation of the former Kindred Hospital to the University of Detroit Mercy School of Dentistry has begun. The school will move in to its new home, which is located on Martin Luther King Jr., Blvd. just east of I-96, in January of 2008.

The new facility will increase the size of the school from its current 125,000 square feet at the university’s Outer Drive campus to over 261,000. Nancy Maier, the school’s senior advancement officer, points out that the expansion in space will allow annual admissions to grow from 78 to 90 — and eventually up to 100.

An important aspect of the UDM dentistry school is the low-cost dental services it provides for Metro Detroit residents. The facility will include a lobby that can seat 180 patients and 190 patient operatories. Maier believes the location will improve its accessibility to the public. “It’s located by all major highways and there are four bus stops right in the vicinity,” she says.

The school serves 15,000 patients each year and plans to grow that number, in part because of the new location’s proximity to Southwest Detroit. Maier says that the Latino community has been under-served by dentists. “We have felt very welcomed by that community, and we feel really good about that,” she says.

The school will feature a high-tech stimulation lab with 100 workstations, a surgical suite and digital radiology units. The entire facility will be wireless.

The UDM dental school is one of only two in the state and fully one-third of its graduates practice in Michigan.

General contractor on the project is Detroit-based White Construction Co.

Source: Nancy Maier, UDM
Writer: Kelli B. Kavanaugh