Established in 1875, the U-M School of Dentistry (UMSD) is one of the nation's largest public dental schools engaged in oral health care education, research, patient care, and community service. At the time of its creation in 1875, the College of Dental Surgery at the University of Michigan was the first state supported university to offer an education to aspiring dentists. Since then, more than 9,200 men and women have earned dental degrees from UMSD. Seventy-nine years after the dental hygiene curriculum was established in 1921, more than 2,600 have received either a bachelor's degree or certificate in dental hygiene.

Programs
UMSD offers predoctoral, graduate, and postgraduate programs. Approximately 600 students are enrolled in all programs and are supported by 600 faculty and staff.

The predoctoral program prepares students for careers in general practice, public health, and dental education. Also offered are clinical specialty dental programs in endodontics, oral pathology, oral surgery, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, periodontics, and prosthodontics.

The dental hygiene baccalaureate degree program consists of one year of prescribed college courses followed by three years of instruction at the School of Dentistry.

Patient-centered "Vertically Integrated Clinics," or VICs, are an important element of the predoctoral and dental hygiene programs. A combination of classroom and real world experience, VICs offer students in all four dental classes and all three dental hygiene classes an opportunity to work together to achieve high levels of clinical competence.

D1 (freshman) and D2 (sophomore) students obtain basic clinical training and experience that prepares them for more advanced clinical experiences during their D3 and D4 years. Dental hygiene students begin their clinical experiences during the first semester.

The School has two programs designed to attract disadvantaged college students to careers in the oral health profession - Pipeline and Profile for Success.

Pipeline - a six-week, on-campus program for college freshmen and sophomores - strengthens a student's academic skills, especially in the sciences. Students take mini courses in biology, chemistry, and physics. Labs supplement lectures. Emphasis is not solely on science courses, however. Academic skills are bolstered with lectures on time management, note taking, test preparation, and other topics.

Profile for Success - a four-week, on-campus program for college juniors and seniors - increases a student's understanding of career options in the oral health profession and prepares them to successfully complete the Dental Admissions Test. Students gain experience that simulates activities in clinical practice. These include cavity preparation on artificial teeth, making impressions, exposing and processing radiographs, and waxing.

The School's graduate programs lead to a Master of Science degree or a specialty certification in biomaterials, endodontics, operative dentistry, oral and maxillofacial surgery, orthodontics, pediatric dentistry, periodontics, prosthodontics, and restorative dentistry.

An Advanced Education in General Dentistry (AEGD) residency program, provides a year of advanced training for recently graduated dentists who plan to practice comprehensive general dentistry. The AEGD program offers didactic support and clinical experience for a comprehensive treatment core of periodontics, endodontics, prosthodontics, and restorative dentistry while also providing internal rotations in oral surgery and pediatric dentistry.

Graduate instruction in dental hygiene leading to a master's degree is also offered as a part of the dental hygiene curriculum. Graduate instruction leading to the Ph.D. degree is also offered in oral health sciences and dentistry. UMSD conferred its first doctorates in oral health sciences last year.

Interdisciplinary Research
UMSD has a strong research program. Its diversified portfolio focuses on basic science research, translational research, clinical research, and outcomes and health services research. Dental and dental hygiene students in the undergraduate curriculum are actively involved in a student research program that exposes them to careers in dental research and instills skills of critical scientific thinking and understanding of the scientific method.

The School of Dentistry is extensively involved in interdisciplinary research with other schools and colleges including the U-M Medical School, the School of Pharmacy, the School of Nursing, the School of Public Health, the School of Social Work, the College of Engineering, and the College of Literature, Sciences, and Arts.

Major research areas include developing methods of regenerating oral tissues such as bone, cementum, dentin, and mucosa using tissue engineering and gene therapy; basic studies on the development of oral tissues; investigations into the oral etiology, prevention, and treatment of oral cancers; studies on taste perception, nerve regeneration and pain; developing and testing antiviral/antibacterial agents for treating oral lesions; and population studies assessing oral health disparities, oral health care delivery, and oral epidemiology; and research focusing on the neurobiological and clinical consequences of pain.

Research projects include developing tissues that may be used to replace diseased or damaged body parts; using engineered tissues and cells and gene therapy to produce organs with the same characteristics as natural tissues; and pain research.

UMSD also collaborates with other colleges and universities across the U.S. and worldwide on projects such as the bioengineering research partnership to solve problems in skeletal construction and the Visible Human Project.

The School of Dentistry is playing a significant role in the University of Michigan's Life Sciences Initiative (LSI). Launched last year, LSI will expand, enhance, and integrate life sciences education and research, with an emphasis on interdisciplinary research.

"For many years we have been involved in one of the LSI's cornerstones, interdisciplinary research as biochemistists, molecular biologists, physiologists, microbiologists, neurologists, biomaterials and biomedical engineers, tissue engineers, and epidemiologists have collaborated with other schools and colleges," said Dean William Kotowicz.

Community Outreach
Working with communities is a tradition at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry. In 1945, UMSD collaborated with officials in Grand Rapids, Michigan, to launch a water fluoridation program that ushered in one of the most successful public health projects in history. The School also provides a range of services from its clinics on campus to residents of southeast Michigan at the School's clinics and Community Dental Center, a cooperative venture with the City of Ann Arbor for nearly 20 years. During the 12 months ending June 30, 1999, approximately 60,000 patients were treated at UMSD clinics.

For the past 27 years, the School has provided quality oral health care at its annual summer migrant dental clinic in the Traverse City area. Children of migrant workers receive dental care during the day; adult migrant workers receive oral health care in the evening.

Building on the success of the migrant clinic program, UMSD launched a pilot outreach program in Battle Creek in 1997 providing oral health care services to the underserved. The proximity of Battle Creek to Ann Arbor, 90 miles, enables dental and dental hygiene students to rotate to the site for an entire academic year.

Because of the success of that program, and with help from the public and private sectors, UMSD this spring announced a major expansion of its community outreach program to five sites across Michigan.

Strong Alumni Support
The School of Dentistry has strong relationships with its 9,000 alumni worldwide. School of Dentistry alumni/ae are active in the School's continuing dental education courses. Nearly 5,100 dentists, specialists, and hygienists enrolled in UMSD continuing education courses last year.

A few weeks ago, the school celebrated nearly $13 million in renovations to the Kellogg Building and named three facilities for three of its alumni.

"This has been a banner year marked by a confluence of major events," Dean Kotowicz said. "Our programs, faculty, students, staff, improved facilities, and our history have set the stage for an exciting future."

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