SWU-Phinma officials and members of the Student Council of the College of Dentistry unveil the new College of Dentistry building during the groundbreaking ceremony of the P220 million project on March 1, 2019. |Marc Cosep
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Seeing the potential growth in the dental industry, the Southwestern University (SWU)-Phinma is investing P220 million to build a new dentistry building.
Construction for the seven-storey building is scheduled to start this month and is targeted to be completed on April 2020.
Albert Gamboa, SWU chief of operations officer, said that the new building would increase the dentistry student’s population by 10 to 20 percent at the SWU campus in Urgello Street, Cebu City.
Gamboa said that the university was focusing its investment into dentistry being one of its key programs in the university.
The project when completed will provide clinical and pre-clinical areas, faculty area, administrative offices, discussion rooms and a rest area for students.
According to Gamboa, they planned eight clinics in the building complete with a reception room, three simulation rooms where students could practice their instruments before working on patients.
“The building will be called SWU Villa and will also have a dental laboratory, an autoclave room complete denture room and a roentgenology laboratory, and a central stockroom to serve the laboratories and clinics,” said Gamboa.
With the growing population of students enrolling in the dentistry program, Gamboa said he was confident that the university would be able to accommodate more students.
Gamboa also emphasized that the rising importance of oral health also contributed to the interest among young people enrolling in the program.
Gamboa said he believed that the dental sector had much potential, citing the country’s strong quality in the healthcare workforce.
“Our compassion towards dealing with patients is our strength,” he said./dbs