GREENVILLE – In serving rural patients, Dr. Greg Chadwick sees the painful choices people without access to good dental care sometimes must make.

East Carolina University’s School of Dental Medicine aims to supply more dentists to rural and underserved parts of the state. In the accompanying video, Dean Chadwick shares the case of a teenage boy ECU dental students encountered as they set up a clinic in Western North Carolina.

The boy had a large cavity and his grandmother had to choose between having the tooth removed or a root canal. Because the root canal was more expensive and involved a trip to another town, she chose to have the tooth removed.

“Look at what you’ve done to that young man’s life – is your daughter going to date him? Is he going to be able to get a job where he meets the public, just because of that one tooth?” Chadwick says.

“So when you look at our mission and you look at some of the things we’re trying to accomplish, it can be as simple as keeping your smile. And that’s one of the things that we see that we bring to not only Eastern North Carolina, but we bring to all of North Carolina.”