100 Years of Excellence: A CDM Timeline

Columbia University publishes a proposal for the establishment of a dental school, submitted by a group of prominent New York dentists, physicians, and scientists. "A Dental School on University Lines" sets forth the enduring principles that general health and oral health are closely related and that the school of dentistry should have close ties with the medical school.

The journal enhances the research mission of dental schools across the nation.

Dr. Hughes is a champion of preventive dentistry: "The value of a clean mouth as a vital factor in maintaining a healthy body is now universally recognized, and as a result regular and thorough prophylactic treatments have become of constantly increasing importance..."

William J. Gies, PhD, proposes the formation of the American Association of Dental Schools by bringing together several separate entities. It endures as the voice of dental education and is now known as the American Dental Education Association (ADEA), with a foundation named for William J. Gies, PhD.    

Dental Education in the United States and Canada is published by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching. It contains 250 pages of text and more than 400 pages of appendices, including descriptions and evaluations of existing dental schools, each of which Dr. Gies visited during 5 years of research. He uses the Columbia school as the model for the future of all dental schools.Dental Education in the United States and Canada remains a seminal piece of research within dentistry.

Seymour Lipton goes on to become a leading American abstract sculptor. His work is represented by many New York galleries and he receives major corporate commissions. His sculptures are exhibited in museums, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Herbert Ferber, known in the dental world as Dr. Herbert Silvers, goes on to become a world renowned abstract expressionist sculptor. He is credited with creating one of the first environmental sculptures, in 1960, that viewers experience by walking through it. His work is exhibited in many museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Whitney Museum. In the early 1970's, the American Dental Association commissions a sculpture for its headquarters, which it later donates to the City of Chicago.

Victor Koussow, a quarrelsome school laboratory technician, fatally shoots Associate Dean Arthur Rowe and Dr. Paul Wiberg, and injures one other faculty member. He commits suicide as police arrive at the Medical Center.

SDOS issues postdoctoral certificates in four specialty areas: oral surgery, general dentistry, periodontics (one of the first such programs in the U.S.), and orthodontics, a program that dates back to 1917.

Now called Pediatric Dentistry, the postdoctoral Pedodontics program is established by Ewing Cleveland McBeath, DDS, MD. It is one of the earliest such programs in the world.

The University approves a separate faculty, the Faculty of Dental and Oral Surgery. The associate dean’s position under the former arrangement is restored to dean. Gilbert Smith becomes the Dean of SDOS.

A professor in the department of anatomy, he recruits new full time faculty and strengthens the research mission of the school.

Dr. Zegarelli, an eminent oral pathologist and SDOS graduate in 1941, serves as Dean from 1973 until he retires in 1978. By the time he retires, he will have spent his entire professional career on the faculty of SDOS.

Dr. Wayman comes to the position after completing 3 degrees at Columbia, including a doctorate in education in conjunction with Teachers College.

Steven Roser, DMD, MD (left in photo) is appointed director of the Division of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery. He establishes the joint MD-Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery program. It is the 7th such program in the nation and is established between the SDOS, the College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Presbyterian Hospital.

Dr. Mandel, Professor of Dentistry and Associate Dean for Research, is the first person to receive this American Dental Association award. He is known for establishing the first Division of Preventive Dentistry at Columbia, and he is world-renowned for his research on saliva.

The program is established to educate underrepresented minority residents in the dental specialties. 23 residents from Harlem Hospital complete specialty programs in fields such as periodontics, endodontics, orthodontics and pediatric dentistry. Graduates become faculty members at Columbia, staff at Harlem Hospital, and practitioners in their specialty fields.

SDOS establishes the Community DentCare network to provide care in public schools and Head Start centers. A grant of $1 million is provided by the W. K. Kellogg Foundation to assist the effort.

SDOS is selected by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation as the National Program Office for the Pipeline, Profession & Practice: Community-Based Dental Education demonstration project, the largest foundation initiative in dentistry ever funded. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the California Endowment also provide funds for this project. The ten-year project funds 23 dental schools to implement programs for students to study and treat patients in community clinics and encourages schools to increase underrepresented minority student applications and enrollment.

SDOS establishes the ElderSmile program to bring attention to the oral health needs of the elderly. Care is provided at the Washington Houses for the Elderly and the Isabella Geriatric Center.

The College of Dental Medicine receives the American Dental Education Association William J. Gies Foundation award for Outstanding Vision by an Academic Dental Institution.

Roseanna Graham, DDS, becomes the first graduate of this dual degree program. She goes on to earn a PhD in science education, also a first. Dr. Graham joins the College of Dental Medicine faculty full time.

The College of Dental Medicine is awarded a second American Dental Education Gies Foundation Award for Outstanding Achievement by an Academic Dental Institution for its Community DentCare program. (Photo shows opening of a public school clinic site.)

The College of Dental Medicine celebrates its first 100 years. A comprehensive history book is written by Allan J. Formicola, Dean Emeritus, and is published by Columbia University Press. The College anticipates moving forward in an electronic age.

The Columbia University College of Dental Medicine’s mobile dentistry program doubled its capacity to deliver health screenings and low-cost dental care to residents of Northern Manhattan and the Bronx with the introduction of a new mobile health clinic, which was generously funded by a $500,000 grant from the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation. This van, the second in CDM's mobile fleet, increased CDM’s capacity to meet clients in their communities and to conduct oral health screenings and primary care exams.