Identity area
Type of entity
Authorized form of name
Parallel form(s) of name
Standardized form(s) of name according to other rules
Other form(s) of name
Identifiers for corporate bodies
Description area
Dates of existence
History
The Faculty of Dentistry is the only dental school east of Montreal and educates over three-quarters of dentists practising in Atlantic Canada. Dalhousie created the faculty in 1908 in affiliation with the recently established Maritime Dental College for the purpose of examining candidates and conferring the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. Dalhousie also provided lecture and clinical facilities in what is now known as the Forrest Building; in 1912 Dalhousie also assumed responsibility for instruction, and the four students who graduated that year did so as the first class in the Faculty of Dentistry. Teaching continued to be carried out by part-time dental practitioners; with the exception of a brief period in the late forties, until 1953 there was only one full-time faculty member, J. Stanley Bagnall, who himself had graduated from Dalhousie in 1921.
The introduction of government grants as well as private donations and gifts from the Kellogg Foundation enabled the dental school to expand dramatically throughout the 1950s, including the number of full-time faculty, the creation of a school of dental hygiene, and the building of the current Dentistry Building at the corner of Robie Street and University Avenue. By 1967 there were 15 full-time academic staff and 31 part-time faculty members, supported by 20 administrative and technical personnel.
In 1969 the faculty, which, since its beginnings, had operated as a single administrative department, established four departments: Oral Biology; Oral Medicine and Surgery; Restorative Dentistry; and Paediatric and Community Dentistry, with independent department heads or chairs. Today the faculty comprises the School of Dental Hygiene and the departments of Dental Clinical Sciences, Applied Oral Sciences and Oral and Maxillofacial Sciences, each made up of its own internal divisions.
Places
Legal status
Functions, occupations and activities
The Faculty of Dentistry offers a four-year, fully-accredited Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS) program and a three-year DDS qualifying program that prepares graduates of international dental programs to become certified to practise dentistry in Canada. It also delivers a two-year Diploma in Dental Hygiene and a one-year degree completion program leading to a Bachelor of Dental Hygiene degree. The faculty also offers graduate and post-graduate as well as continuing professional education.
The faculty oversees public patient clinics and outreach programs that facilitate dental education and training and work in tandem with a full-service professional dental laboratory and an electronic patient record system. It also administers individual research programs and active, collaborative research teams dedicated to improving the oral health of individuals and populations and is home to innovative and collaborative research centres and labs, including:
Bacteriology Pathogenesis Laboratory
Biomaterials Engineering Lab
Laboratory for Biofilm Ecology
Minimally Invasive Interventional Materials Group
Network for Canadian Oral Health Research
PriceLab
Tissue Mechanics Lab
Mandates/sources of authority
The basic statute relating to Dalhousie University is Chapter 24 of the Acts of 1863. This statute replaced earlier statutes, and the 1863 statute itself has been amended and supplemented several times over the years. The provisions of these various statutes provide for the establishment and regulation of the university, the membership of the Board of Governors and its rights and powers, the authority of senate for the internal regulation of the university (subject to the approval of the board), and various other matters.
The faculty's published mission and vision statements include the promotion and provision of oral health care as an integral component of overall health for regional, national and international communities through quality education, research and service; and the promotion of integrity, competence and compassion while providing evidence-based, ethical oral health care to all populations, in collaboration with other health professionals.