The Harvard School of Dental Medicine’s (HSDM) early beginnings
are rooted in a bold idea in 1867 that would forever link dentistry and
medicine, and raise the bar for dental education. At a time when dentistry was
largely a trade requiring no formal education and focusing on extracting
decayed and damaged teeth and plugging cavities, Boston physician and Harvard
Medical School alumnus Nathan Cooley Keep, M.D., viewed oral health as vitally
important to the health of the whole body.
Dr. Keep was determined to establish
dentistry as a branch of medicine. His perseverance paid off on July 17, 1867,
when Harvard University established the first dental school in the the United
States to be affiliated with a university and its medical school. Known as
Harvard Dental School, it also became the first dental school to confer the Dentariae Medicinae Doctor (D.M.D.)
degree, a title that emphasized students’ medical training. This was a seminal
step in creating the academic environment and prestige for dentistry to be a
learned profession. Dr. Keep became the first Dean of the school; the castle “keep” in the school’s
shield honors his visionary role to this day.
Early on, the Harvard Dental School became
known as a pioneer in dental education, and an early proponent of diversity in
dentistry. The inaugural class included Robert Tanner Freeman, D.M.D., a son of
former slaves. In 1869, Dr. Freeman became the first African-American in the
country to graduate from a dental institution. Shortly after Dr. Freeman, George Franklin Grant,
D.M.D., became the second
African-American graduate of the dental school, and went on to become the first African-American faculty member of Harvard
University.
Harvard Dental School quickly earned an
international reputation for its high standards and thorough professional
training in dentistry. The school offered a two-year D.M.D. curriculum as early
as 1875, and by 1885 required its students to have a college degree, or to pass
an examination in English and Physics. By 1916 it became the first dental
school to establish a student research society.
The school’s name changed to Harvard School
of Dental Medicine (HSDM) in 1940 to better reflect its focus on medical
research and science—a focus that continues to leverage scientific strengths in the
areas of skeletal biology and the pathology of bones, joints and connective
tissues. In addition to educating skilled clinicians, Harvard’s curriculum
fostered leaders and educators in dentistry by emphasizing critical thinking and
requiring students to experience research. With this research advantage, the school
became the first dental institution to receive training grants from the
National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial
Research.
HSDM has also led the way in creating new
programs of study and problem-based approaches to learning. A combined oral and
maxillofacial surgery/M.D./general surgery program was established 1971, and
later a combined dentist–scientist program (D.M.Sc./M.M.Sc.). Both programs
have had a significant impact on the profession by setting the standard for
programs at other institutions, and creating leaders in dental education,
research and practice. Just this year, HSDM announced
a new two-year program leading to a M.M.Sc. in Dental Education to train the
next generation of dental educators.
The same guiding principles that motivated
Dr. Keep to unite dentistry and medicine continue to be reflected in HSDM’s
curriculum. Today’s D.M.D. students spend the first year of their four-year
program learning alongside their medical school classmates. They also learn about the integration of
oral health and primary care with rotations in the Teaching Practices of the Harvard Dental
Center. Like
the dental students who came before them many years ago, they gain an
intellectual experience that reflects the biological underpinnings of oral and
systemic health, the value of evidence-based research, and the importance of
clinical study, true to the founding vision.
To learn more about HSDM’s history, visit 150.hsdm.harvard.edu.
Courtesy of Heather Denny, MLA,
Director of Communications, Harvard School of Dental Medicine
Published on May 10, 2017.