Founded in 1865 as the New York College of Dentistry, with 31 students and 10 faculty members, the College was
originally located in rented quarters at the corner of 22nd Street and Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. The College
officially merged with New York University in 1925, which led to the promotion of research and
postdoctoral education. Today NYUCD is recognized as a leading source for dental care in New York City and
a leader in research and national policy issues in dentistry.
NYUCD offers training annually to over 1,800 students from all over the U.S. and nearly 50 countries. Approximately
50 percent of NYUCD students are women and minorities. They include predoctoral and postdoctoral students
of dentistry, as well as students in dental hygiene and nursing. The College also offers M.S. programs in
biology/oral biology, clinical research and biomaterials, and a Ph.D. program in epidemiology in collaboration
with Columbia, Johns Hopkins, and Yale Universities. An extensive program of continuing education courses is
available for graduate dentists.
In addition to educating health professionals, NYUCD endeavors to improve the health of the highly diverse populations
in New York City and around the world. NYUCD provides more than 350,000 visits annually to the most multiethnic,
multicultural patient population in the nation. The College conducts a mobile dental care program, Smiling Faces,
Going Places, which travels to medically-underserved areas throughout New York State to provide critically needed
dental services; operates the only dental school-based clinical research center in the U.S. that provides beds for
24-hour patient monitoring; is a national center for consumer information, education, and research into the causes
and prevention of oral cancer; sponsors free oral health and oral cancer screenings for thousands of New Yorkers
annually; conducts additional, media-driven consumer education campaigns under the banner of "Ask Your Dentist"; and
offers access to a global network of dental colleges, which greatly expands student and faculty opportunities for
international study and service. In addition, NYUCD is part of the NYU Catastrophe Preparedness and Response Center
and has become the unquestioned leader among dental schools in catalyzing a national initiative to enable dentists
to play a critical role within a coordinated, collaborative response to deal with the threat of terrorism, including
bioterrorism and other catastrophes. As a result of these programs, NYUCD is well on its way to becoming the dental
institution in the world with the greatest impact on the health of society.
