History
The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, Dental School, University of Maryland has the distinction of being the first dental college in the world. Formal education to prepare students for the practice of dentistry originated in 1840 with its establishment. The chartering of the school by the General Assembly of Maryland on February 1, 1840 represented the culmination of the efforts of Dr. Horace H. Hayden and Dr. Chapin A. Harris, two physicians who recognized the need for systematic formal education as the foundation for a scientific and serviceable dental profession. Together, they played a major role in establishing and promoting formal dental education, and in the development of dentistry as a profession.
Convinced that support for a formal course in dental education would not come from a medical school faculty that had rejected the establishment of a department of dentistry, Dr. Hayden undertook the establishment of an independent dental college. Dr. Harris, an energetic and ambitious young man who had come to Baltimore in 1830 to study under Dr. Hayden, joined his mentor in the effort to found the college.
The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery soon became a model for other schools throughout America. This was due in no small part to BCDS’s emphasis on sound knowledge of general medicine and the development of the skills needed in dentistry.
The present Dental School evolved through a series of consolidations involving the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, founded in 1840; Maryland Dental College, founded in 1873; the Dental Department of the University of Maryland, founded in 1882; and the Dental Department of the Baltimore Medical College, founded in 1895. The final consolidation took place in 1923, when the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery and the Dental Department of the University of Maryland were combined to create a distinct college of the University under state supervision and control. As part of the University of Maryland, the Dental School was incorporated into the University System of Maryland (USM), formed by Maryland’s General Assembly in 1988. Hayden-Harris Hall, the school building erected in 1970 and renovated in 1990, will be replaced by an entirely new facility, which opened in September 2006.