Message from the Dean

State Budget Reductions

View updated information from Dr. Teresa Dolan [123K] on the College of Dentistry's plans and response to the State of Florida's current budget issues.

March 28 Budget Update [135K]

College of Dentistry in Focus

The University of Florida College of Dentistry is one of six health science colleges that make up the J. Hillis Miller Health Science Center. The college is Florida's only public dental school and serves as the dental safety net for Florida's low-income residents, providing nearly 10 percent of all indigent dental care to Florida's residents through comprehensive, state-of-the-art clinical services.

We are particularly proud of the achievement of our students. In 2005, the college graduated it's 30th class of D.M.D. students; 100 percent of these new dental graduates passed the Florida Dental Licensure Exam on the first attempt, and more than 95 percent of them will remain in Florida to practice. In addition, the Class of 2006 proved the continuing quality and dedication of UF dental students by achieving a 100 percent pass rate on the National Boards Part II exam!

Since its first class of 24 D.M.D. students was admitted in 1972, the college has graduated 1,940 dentists. Advanced and graduate education at the college has produced more than 720 dental specialists, and has grown from six programs with an enrollment of 36 in 1979, to 16 accredited programs with an enrollment of 108 students in 2005. The approximately 80 dental students who will be enrolled as the Class of 2010 this August will be chosen from a pool of more than 1,300 top-notch applicants.

The college enjoys a growing national reputation for its oral health research enterprise, emphasizing infectious diseases in dentistry, bone biology, pain and neurosciences, and translational research, including practice-based studies to improve clinical dental care. Total sponsored research in the college more than $16 million in 2005, ranking the college No. 4 out of 56 dental schools in terms of federal funding for research.

The overall excellent reputation of the College of Dentistry places it among the top in the country and very competitive in attracting excellent faculty. Despite a nationwide shortage in dental faculty, 22 new faculty members were recruited to the college in 2005.

A diverse group of 135 oral health clinicians, researchers and educators make up the college's full-time faculty. About 62 percent are tenure track or accruing faculty, and non-tenured faculty consists of clinical professors dedicated to hands-on student education and patient care or research scientists exploring the limits in basic science research to advance translational and clinical dental science.

In addition, college faculty is enriched with the expertise of 26 part-time faculty members and a clinical courtesy faculty of 340 volunteer community dentists. The core of the college's successes is this combined faculty, which carries on the college's pursuit of excellence in patient care, research and education.

Best wishes,

Teresa A. Dolan, D.D.S., M.P.H.
Professor and Dean, College of Dentistry
University of Florida