Seton Hill University, Greensburg, Pa, will open an orthodontic training program in July. The program will be headed by Donald Rinchuse, DMD, MS, MDS, PhD, and his brother Daniel Rinchuse, DMD, MS, MDS, PhD, who conceived the idea. Currently the two teach at the University of Pittsburgh School of Dental Medicine and operate an orthodontics practice in Hempfield, Pa.
The Richuses approached Seton Hill officials a year ago with the concept. Last week, Seton Hill got a $500,000 commitment from the Department of Health and Human Services to fund the new orthodontics center and clinic. The 30-month residency program will educate six dentists in orthodontics during the first year, and will eventually expand to eight dentists per year. The clinic will also provide orthodontic services to low-income families in the area.
The Richuses will leave their teaching posts at the University of Pittsburgh to start the program. Donald Rinchuse will serve as the program director and Daniel Rinchuse will serve as associate director.
The brothers wanted to open an orthodontics school in the area because of their past work with low-income patients. For almost 25 years, the two had offered orthodontic services to the poor through a clinic in Excela Health Westmoreland Hospital in Greensburg. Excela ended the orthodontics program about 3 years ago, according to Donald Rinchuse.
"They were driving two and three hours to get to us. We had a waiting list of a couple years," Donald Rinchuse told the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. "That was a big impetus to do it, to kind of resurrect it though an orthodontic residency program to see a way to treat the indigent patients."
