Dental school to open in Albuquerque in 2025

Sep. 30—New Mexico will welcome its first undergraduate dental clinical training facility in 2025.

The groundbreaking for the new school, which is an extension of Touro University's College of Dental Medicine, took place Wednesday in Albuquerque. Touro, which is based in New York, was established in 1970 and offers a variety of programs to more than 19,000 students across 35 schools in four countries, according to its website. With campuses in California, Illinois and Nevada, Touro is also America's largest not-for-profit Jewish institution of higher and professional education.

The university will venture into New Mexico with a nearly 70,000-square-foot clinical training facility in existing space on the campus of Albuquerque's Lovelace Biomedical Research Institute.

"We saw an opportunity, because there was not one in the state and we felt that it could be introduced with Lovelace and it would fill an important void," Touro President Alan Kadish said of the $40 million to $50 million project.

Kadish said the school will have "tens of millions of dollars of economic impact" through construction jobs, jobs at the school and teaching 200 students per semester. He also said the facility will have a clinic that will be able to offer thousands of dental visits a year.

Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller hailed the groundbreaking in a social media post.

"This facility will address the shortage of dental professionals and create career pathways for young adults right here in New Mexico," Keller wrote.

The school is expected to begin accepting students in summer 2025 and hopes to open the clinic a couple months before then.