Harvard School of Dental Medicine



Harvard School of Dental Medicine (HSDM) is one of the graduate schools of Harvard University. It is an American dental school located in the Longwood Area of the Boston, Massachusetts neighborhood of Mission Hill. In addition to the DMD degree, HSDM offers specialty training programs, advanced training programs, a Ph.D. program affiliated with the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, and Master of Medical Sciences & Doctor of Medical Sciences degrees in Oral Biology.

Today, HSDM is the smallest school at Harvard University. With a total student body of 280, including pre-doctoral and post-doctoral students spread over several disciplines, HSDM is an intimate community of students and faculty. Even when compared to other dental schools, HSDM is small, and its total living alumni number is approximately 1,800 worldwide. While HSDM is small, it continues to have considerable influence on dental education and research within the broader oral health community. Of the 54 dental school deans in the United States, sixteen are HSDM alumni (as of 2005). Many other HSDM alumni pursue careers as full-time faculty members, department heads, and leaders of organized dentistry.

First University-Based Dental School
In the early 1800s most dental practitioners had either learned their "trade" through apprenticeships, or they simply offered their services to the public as self-proclaimed experts. The move toward more formal dental education in the United States began when the state of Maryland chartered the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery in 1840. The establishment of this independent college, which may have occurred after the University of Maryland refused to add dental education to its curriculum, exemplified the nineteenth-century debate over whether dentistry should be part of scholarly education, or be taught in separate "trade" schools. As a result of this resistance, the four American dental schools that existed by 1865 were all freestanding. The move towards university-based dental education institutions (as they exist today) began with the formation of Harvard Dental School in 1867. Dr. Reidar F. Sognnaes, noted oral pathologist and founding dean of the UCLA School of Dentistry, commented on the significance of the school's formation in a 1977 New England Journal of Medicine article:


 * There was a time when the mouth, relatively speaking, was considered a scientific "no-man's land." That was when dental education fell between academic chairs--literally between the eyes, ears, nose and throat. In the United States dentistry was denied the academic status of other segments of higher education until 1867, when Harvard established the first dental school affiliated with a university-based faculty of medicine.

Origins of DMD Degree
Harvard was the first dental school to award the DMD degree. Harvard University only grants degrees in Latin and school administrators thought the Latin translation of Doctor of Dental Surgery ("Chirurgae Dentium Doctoris," or CDD) was too cumbersome. A Latin scholar was consulted and suggested "Medicinae Doctor" be prefixed with "Dentariae." This is how the DMD, or "Dentariae Medicinae Doctor" degree, was started. Other dental schools made the switch to this notation, and in 1989, 23 of the 66 North American dental schools awarded the D.M.D. There is no difference between the DMD and DDS degree; all dentists must meet the same National & Regional certification standards. Harvard also helped to establish the BDent degree program at the University of Sydney which was heavily modeled after Harvard's DMD curriculum.

Renaming the School: 1940
The school was established as Harvard Dental School in 1867, but renamed the Harvard School of Dental Medicine in 1940. This symbolic change was made to emphasize the biological basis of oral medicine and the increasingly multidisciplinary focus of dental research.

Some Notable Alumni
Deans and Former Deans of US Dental Schools
 * Dr. Bruce Donoff, Dean, Harvard School of Dental Medicine, DMD'67, OMFS'71
 * Dr. Leon Assael, Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, former Dean, University of Kentucky College of Dentistry, DMD'75
 * Dr. James Hupp, Editor-in-Chief, Oral Surgery Oral Medicine Oral Pathology Radiology and Endodontics and Dean, University of Mississippi School of Dental Medicine, DMD '77
 * Dr. Marjorie K. Jeffcoat, Dean, University of Pennsylvania School of Dental Medicine, DMD'76 Perio'78
 * Dr. No-Hee Park, Dean, UCLA School of Dentistry, DMD'82
 * Dr. Charles Bertolami, Former Dean, UCSF School of Dentistry, Currently, Dean, NYU College of Dentistry, OMFS '80

Other Notable Alumni
 * Dr. Richard Valahovic, Executive Director, American Dental Education Association, DMD '82
 * Dr. Walter Guralnick, Pioneer in Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, DMD'41
 * Dr. Leonard Kaban, Chief of Service, Massachusetts General Hospital Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, DMD'69, OMFS'74
 * Dr. Jeffrey Posnick, Formerly Chief of Plastic Surgery and Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery, Georgetown University School of Medicine, DMD'77
 * Dr. Vincent J. Iacono, President, American Academy of Periodontology, DMD'72, Perio'74
 * Dr. Christopher H. Fox, Executive Director, International and American Associations for Dental Research, DMD'87
 * Dr. Varaztad H. Kazanjian, Pioneer in Plastic Surgery, Harvard's First Professor of Plastic Surgery, DMD 1905
 * Dr. Robert T. Freeman, First African-American Dental College Graduate, DMD 1869
 * Dr. Nathan Cooley Keep, First Dean of Harvard Dental School, DMD 1870(honorary)
 * Dr. George Franklin Grant, First African-American Faculty Member at Harvard University, DMD 1870
 * Dr. Hans-Peter Weber, Pioneer in Implant Dentistry, DMD'90
 * Dr. Mithran Goonewardene, Professor and Chair of Orthodontics, University of Western Australia, MMSc, Cert.Ortho
 * Dr. Steven Roser, Professor of Surgery, Emory University School of Medicine, formerly, Dean of Graduate Medical Education, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, DMD '68
 * Dr. Igor Lavrin, Associate Professor of Orthodontics, Melbourne University, MMSc Cert.Ortho