Staff, students and alumni to extract full value of centenary
Published On Tue 7 Jun 2016 by Grant Hill
The University of Dundee’s Dental School, one of the most prestigious in the UK and a world-leading centre of innovation, will this week celebrate 100 years of making a difference to people’s lives across the globe.
On Friday, 10th June, Professor Callum Youngson, Head of Dental School at the University of Liverpool and a Dundee graduate, will deliver the last of a series of Alumni Lectures to mark the anniversary. It will be followed by a Civic Reception and Centenary Dinner the next day. These events are part of a year-long programme of events to mark the milestone.
Dundee Dental Hospital began life in 1914 with just two treatment rooms and opening times of five hours per week. It arose from the desire of the energetic and public spirited members of Dundee Dental Club to provide a service to the city’s most needy and destitute and the Dental School was opened two years later.
From the start, they were pioneering institutions, with Dundee being the first Dental Hospital to recognise the need to make sure soldiers were dentally fit, a burning issue as the Great War took hold across Europe.
Although the Dental Hospital remains in Dundee’s Park Place, the buildings and facilities have changed enormously in the intervening 100 years. The Dental School was recently ranked top in Scotland and 4th in the UK in the Guardian University Guide 2017 and Dundee is one of the world’s leading centres for research into craniofacial abnormalities such as cleft lip and palate and the health inequalities they cause.
Staff carry out groundbreaking research on the dental health of specific sections of the population, including the homeless and prisoners, with much of the work stressing the importance and relationship of dental health to general and mental health.
Dundee is also a leader in developing the evidence base to support the best possible clinical care and practice. Its impact can be demonstrated by the fact around half of the heads of dental schools in the UK and Ireland are University graduates. Dentists from around the world come to Dundee for their training while staff at the Dental School have developed research and teaching collaborations in several European countries, the USA and Egypt, with further international initiatives planned.
Professor Mark Hector, Dean of the School of Dentistry, said, “I think it speaks volumes how many of the current Heads of Dentistry around the UK are alumni of Dundee - a meeting of the Dental Schools Council is practically a Dundee reunion.
“Dentistry in Dundee has a very strong record of public care and public education and that remains at the core of what we do now. That same spirit of civic-mindedness and striving to improve society’s health that led to the founding of the Dental Hospital and Dental School remains very much alive 100 years on.
“Looking back to the 1920s and 30s, one of the most influential figures in dentistry, MacPherson Fisher, was based here at Dundee, from where he founded the School Dental Service, two decades before the NHS came into existence. His work persuaded the British Dental Association to run a seven-year public health survey on the status of dental health of schoolchildren across the UK, which found that at least 90 per cent had diseased mouths, with the poorest being worst affected.
“That was a major piece of work that influenced dental care in the UK and around the world. I think you can draw a line from those origins right through to the work we are doing here now, both in terms of educating the next generations of dentists but also in research that is very much aimed at helping people across society and transforming lives.”
Current students and staff are being joined by alumni from around the world in celebrating the centenary, and a book, ‘Transforming Lives for 100 Years’ has been produced by Dr Gavin McKay to detail the history and accomplishments of dentistry in Dundee.
Professor Youngson’s Alumni Lecture takes place at the Dalhousie Building, Old Hawkhill, from 4pm on Friday, 10th June.
The Dental Hospital and School Centenary Civic Reception and Dinner takes place at Apex City Quay Hotel & Spa from 7pm on Saturday, 11th June.
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Grant Hill
Press Officer
University of Dundee
Nethergate, Dundee, DD1 4HN
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Email: g.hill@dundee.ac.uk