By the mid-1800s, dentistry was still viewed as more of a craft or trade than a medical practice. Dental students received technical training at privately owned and operated schools and colleges with no connections to universities.
In 1865, a five-man committee of the Michigan State Dental Association petitioned the University of Michigan’s Board of Regents to establish a dentistry chair within the Medical School. The regents sent the proposal to the Medical School, which denied the proposal as well as similar ones in 1873 and 1874.
After no success over the course of a decade, MSDA members changed tactics and approached the Michigan Legislature. Gov. John J. Bagley signed a bill enabling the Board of Regents to establish and maintain a dental school in connection with the Medical School.
This marked the establishment of the nation’s first state university dental school. (Harvard, a private university, opened a dental school in 1867.) The school’s emphasis on the medical science aspects of dentistry heralded a “new era for dental students.”
Also established was a Homeopathic College within the university with a $3,000 budget for dentistry during the 1875-76 school year.
The Dental College and Homeopathic College shared a small building on Central Campus that was originally built in 1840 to house faculty. A “rivalry” between dental and homeopathic students and a lack of space resulted in the Dental College’s relocation the following year.
Jonathan Taft, one of the MSDA members who originally approached the regents in 1865, was appointed dean and Professor of the Principles and Practice of Dental Medicine and Surgery.
Taft had served as dean of the Ohio College of Dental Surgery for several years and was seen as a leader in dental education and dental science. A respected educator, writer and public speaker, Taft built up the department by recruiting faculty members from across the nation, including several former colleagues from the Ohio College of Dental Surgery.
The Dental College enrolled 20 students in its first year. Students were required to complete two terms of six months followed by a yearlong apprenticeship in a dental office.
In 1894, the regents approved establishing graduate studies within the college. That same year, U-M granted its first Doctor of Dental Science degree to a woman, Carrie Marsden Stewart.
— Katie Kelton, The University Record
