UCSF School of Dentistry

The Dental College was established in 1881 by the University of California Regents September 7 1881, and became the third of the Affiliated Colleges (together with Medicine and Pharmacy) with an initial capital budget of $510. The first class, which started in 1882, was composed of 25 men and one woman. In 1892 the Dental Clinic is transferred to downtown San Francisco to be closer to the population. The school transferred to the Parnassus site with the completion of Affiliated Colleges buildings at the base of Mount Sutro. In 1906, the dental clinic also moved to Mount Sutro after the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire destroys its downtown site. The dental clinic helped minister to the refugee population, which was camped out in nearby Golden Gate Park. Guy S. Millberry, DDS, became the dean of the College in 1914 and during his 25 year tenure he modernized the curriculum and developed a dental hygiene program. Prior to 1929, when dental pre requisites were established, students could enter dental school directly from high school. In 1934 outpatient dental and medical care were transferred to the newly constructed Clinical sciences building.

Willard C. Fleming became dean in 1939, and under his leadership the College established a three-year graduate program in oral surgery and a two-year program in periodontology in 1950, the continuing dental education, called Postgraduate Dental Education in 1954, the Oral and Facial Pain Clinic in 1959. Ben W. Pavone, DDS, became dean in 1965 and in 1967 the School of Dentistry Oral Pathology Laboratory was established.

Campus is officially named the University of California San Francisco in 1970 and it gains more independence from the UC system. Many graduate programs were transferred to Parnassus from Berkeley and post-graduate programs in dental public health begun. The community dental clinics at Buchanan Street and San Francisco General Hospital opened in 1979. Major improvements to facilities and care arrive in 198, with the opening of the Dental Clinics Building at 707 Parnassus Avenue. Assistant U.S. Surgeon General John C. Greene became dean of the School in 1981 and embarks on a campaign to strengthen basic and applied research at the school. During his tenure, he led the school from the middle third of US schools to being number one in the country by most indices.^[2] In 1984, the School of Dentistry was chosen to take in the strategic planning and implementation phases of the Pew National Dental Education Program. Charles Bertolami, DDS, DMedSc, became dean in 1995 and continued to strengthen dental education. He established programs to promote applied research and technology transfer as a crucial component of the School's mission.

The School created its first endowed professorship (Lee-Hysan) in 1995, and by 2006 it had four Distinguished Professorships (each endowed at $1.78-$2.5 million) and five Endowed Chairs (each endowed at $310,000 - $1.5 million). The Oral Cancer Research Center was established in 1996, and the International Dentist Program started in 2001. The School was named the recipient of a nearly $12 million, five-year contract with the NIH to establish an international registry for the study of Sjögren's Syndrome. In 2004 the curriculum was revised to create all new interdepartmental courses developed around five thematic streams to promote the integration of basic sciences and clinical sciences in dental education. In 2005 the organization of the School itself was re-aligned and structured into four departments: Cell and Tissue Biology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Orofacial Sciences, Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences. In 2005, the School received 17 commendations and 0 recommendations at its Commission on Dental Accreditation site visit.

In John D.B. Featherstone, MSc, PhD, became dean, and he implemented digital radiography throughout the Dental Center. Pre-Clinical Lab was renovated in 2009, and named in honor of former UCSF Dentistry Dean and UCSF Chancellor Willard Corwin Fleming. More modernization came in 2009-10 with the UCSF Dental Center patient reception areas revamped and Pediatric Dentistry Clinic expanded. The Craniofacial and Mesenchymal Biology (CMB) lab opened in 2010, and the Dentistry Global Oral Health Initiative launched in 2011. The UCSF School of Dentistry joins all other three UCSF schools in 2014 in becoming the #1 funded schools of their kind by the National Institutes of Health.