‘Transformational Gift’ Will Modernize UIC College of Dentistry

The largest gift in the history of the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Dentistry will modernize outdated clinical facilities and allow the college to assist more patients and better educate its students.

The donation of $8.2 million of KaVo Group dental equipment and technology was made possible by a gift from the Guy D. and Rebecca E. Brunetti Foundation. The college has raised $37 million during its “Brilliant Futures: Educating a New Dentist for America” capital campaign, surpassing the $35 million campaign goal.

UIC Chancellor Paula Allen-Meares expressed her gratitude to the foundation.

“This is a wonderful example of how private donors and public universities can come together for the greater good,” she said. “I am excited for the long-range impact this gift will have on the UIC College of Dentistry.”

The KaVo Group, one of the top three manufacturers of dental equipment in the world, will equip the college with operatory delivery systems, handpieces, digital imaging equipment, and more.

“This gift will transform our college,” said dentistry dean Bruce Graham. “We will now be able to update our clinical facilities and create a new state-of-the-art Integrated Clinical Technology Center, which will encompass all of the college’s undergraduate and postgraduate clinics within the first three floors of our building.”

The Integrated Clinical Technology Center will encompass all 300 clinical operatories at the college, including the Delta Dental of Illinois Predoctoral Pediatric Dentistry Clinic and postgraduate orthodontic clinic (which already utilize KaVo equipment), the ProCare Dental Group Implant and Innovations Center, the Astra Tech Implant Clinic, and all other undergraduate and postgraduate clinics.

The Guy D. and Rebecca E. Brunetti Foundation is an independent philanthropy that supports elementary, secondary, and higher education; health care; fine arts; and religious education and other religious institutions in Illinois. Dr. Robert G. Brunetti, chief executive officer of ProCare Dental Group, which operates 14 dental offices in the Chicago area, is its president.

“I have seen over the past decade how UIC has assumed a role as a national leader in clinical dental education,” Brunetti said, “and helping to provide the resources to continue its mission and renew the clinical facilities was the right thing to do.”

KaVo Group President Vicente Reynal said he was “excited about the opportunity” when Brunetti approached him about working together to support the Integrated Clinical Technology Center.

“As KaVo introduces new advances in patient delivery systems, treatment care, and imaging, we will look to UIC to be a place where we can evaluate these new technologies in a highly productive and multi-layered clinical environment,” Reynal said.