A New Home for Virginia’s Next Generation of Dental Care

Written by Caitlin Hanbury | Video by Will Rummel

The VCU School of Dentistry is taking a historic step – one that promises to shape oral healthcare and dental education across the commonwealth for decades to come. 

The school – Virginia’s only school of dentistry – is building a state‑of‑the‑art home on VCU’s downtown health sciences campus. The five‑story, 314,000‑square‑foot building is slated to break ground in 2027 and open its doors in late 2029. This next chapter represents a once‑in‑a‑generation opportunity to expand access to care, strengthen the dental workforce and advance VCU’s role as the commonwealth’s leader in oral health.

Oral healthcare is the least accessible form of healthcare.

Jeff Johnson, D.M.D., M.P.H., Ed.D., interim dean, VCU School of Dentistry

The vision behind the project is rooted in both ambition and necessity. The school plays a leading role in preparing the state’s dental workforce, a responsibility that extends far beyond its Richmond campus. 

“One of the vital roles the School of Dentistry plays in Virginia is, as its only school of dentistry, we educate the majority of the workforce for all oral health practice across the commonwealth, not just in Richmond,” said Jeff Johnson, D.M.D., M.P.H., Ed.D., interim dean of the School of Dentistry. 

That workforce is the backbone of oral healthcare in every corner of Virginia – from urban clinics to rural communities where provider shortages continue to limit access. The urgency is unmistakable. 

“Oral healthcare is the least accessible form of healthcare,” Dr. Johnson explained. “If we’re unable to train the workforce, if we’re unable to drive innovation and discovery in our laboratory spaces, we can’t meet the needs for Virginians.”

The new facility will rise on the current Larrick Student Center site, placing it near existing and future VCU Health and VCU Health Sciences facilities, ensuring convenient access for patients and community members. 

The new building will bring all of the school’s clinics and programs into one shared space, creating a more unified setting for learning, teaching and patient care. By placing predoctoral, dental hygiene and graduate specialty clinics side by side, it strengthens VCU’s hallmark breadth – from general dentistry to advanced specialties – and opens the door to more connections across education, patient services and research. 

The new facility will bring all predoctoral, dental hygiene and graduate specialty clinics together under one roof, creating a seamless environment for learning, collaboration and comprehensive patient care.

The result is an environment that enhances how students learn, how patients receive care, and how faculty and trainees pursue new discoveries. For Dr. Johnson, the design reflects a simple belief: when learners come first, better care follows. 

“This new building is really transformative for the Commonwealth of Virginia, for VCU and for our patients, because it puts the learner first,” he said. “Everything is meant to improve the quality of education, to improve the quality of experiences that our learners have. And in that, we improve patient care.”

Commitment to patient care is central to the school’s mission. VCU Dental Care, the clinical arm of the School of Dentistry, delivers more than 100,000 patient appointments each year and serves as the state’s leading dental safety‑net clinic, providing the reliable, comprehensive care many Medicaid‑insured and underserved Virginians cannot find elsewhere.

“We don’t turn anybody away,” explained Sarah Heise, D.D.S., a 2025 dentistry alum now continuing her training as a resident. “Every morning there is a line outside the door of patients experiencing urgent or emergent needs. We have clinics equipped to triage, collect imaging, come up with a diagnosis and treat – all in the same day.”

The new building will dramatically expand the school’s capacity to meet that responsibility. 

There’s never a shortage of patients, never a shortage of students who want to be here learning. I think we are outgrowing this building – and it’s all because of wonderful things.

Sarah Heise, D.D.S., VCU School of Dentistry, Class of 2025

The Dr. Roger Wood Special Care Clinic will double in size, expanding care for individuals with significant medical, cognitive or behavioral needs and giving students essential experience in treating patients with complex conditions. The urgent care clinic will nearly double in size, expanding same‑day access for patients in pain and preventing minor issues from becoming serious. Clinical spaces throughout the building will be designed to remove barriers to care, ensuring patients can receive the services they need and the workforce of tomorrow is prepared to meet diverse needs.

For Dr. Heise, the impact is clear. “Being in an environment in a clinical setting where patients feel comfortable and well cared for – and have the tools that we need to fix whatever problem they’re having – is really, really important.”

As Virginia’s only dental school, VCU prepares the majority of the commonwealth’s oral health workforce and drives innovation through research and clinical training that support more than 100,000 patient visits each year. Photo: VCU School of Dentistry

The School of Dentistry’s current facilities, while home to extraordinary work, are stretched to their limits. Clinics are spread across multiple floors, creating logistical challenges and limiting collaboration, and years of additions and renovations have left patient spaces fragmented and difficult to navigate. The buildings’ age and long‑standing maintenance needs mean they no longer fully align with modern educational or patient‑care expectations, and limited space can constrain how many emergency patients the school is able to accommodate, affecting both access to care and learning opportunities. 

“We are always at maximum capacity,” Dr. Heise said. “There’s never a shortage of patients, never a shortage of students who want to be here learning. I think we are outgrowing this building – and it’s all because of wonderful things.” 

Dentistry alum John Doswell, II, D.D.S. sees the new building as an essential tool in maintaining the school’s leadership in the field. He stresses that both clinical care and education rely on modern infrastructure, not just meeting today’s standards, but anticipating tomorrow’s. “You need to have a state‑of‑the‑art clinical facility, and from an educational standpoint, you need to be able to be current with everything, if not even more than current and looking forward with it,” he said. 

The school’s new building is designed with that future in mind. 

“This building will be agile and adaptable as we grow into it,” Dr. Johnson emphasized. “We’re not just building a school for 2030 when we’re fully operational. We’re building a school for 2040, for 2050 with the ability to pivot classroom spaces, educational laboratory spaces, and clinical spaces to reflect what’s new in dentistry and the needs of our patients.”

The state is funding construction of the new building, but additional partnership and investment will shape what the facility can ultimately deliver. 

Philanthropic support will help ensure the space is equipped to meet the needs of students, patients and communities across Virginia. For alumni, friends and partners, it is a meaningful chance to help influence the future of oral healthcare in the commonwealth. 

“If we’re doing such great things in a facility like we’re in now, there really is no limit to what we can do in a new facility – a facility that embraces innovation, collaboration and focuses on the people inside it,” Dr. Johnson said.

If you would like to support the VCU School of Dentistry, contact Gloria Callihan, the school’s associate dean for development and alumni relations, at 804-828-8101 or gfcallihan@vcu.edu.