LECOM presented plans for the LECOM School of Dental Medicine in Bradenton, FL, during a news conference at the campus in Lakewood Ranch. For more than a year, LECOM administrators and the Board of Trustees investigated the need to open a dental school in Florida and determined that the College could meet the educational and health care needs of the state’s citizens. Reports from the Surgeon General of the United States showed that while the understanding of tooth decay and periodontal diseases brought about marked improvement in the oral health of many Americans, not all Americans benefited by the same degree.