About Us

With a long tradition of tending to West Virginia's oral health needs, the West Virginia University School of Dentistry has served the Mountain State with highly trained dental practitioners since 1957. The school offers advanced training programs in orthodontics, oral and maxillofacial surgery, prosthodontics and endodontics, as well as a bachelor's and master's program in dental hygiene. The School also maintains a one year general practice residency program.

The School of Dentistry provides the people of West Virginia with an oral health center for education, research and service activities. Furthermore, the School strives to contribute to and improve the dental health of all people, especially the citizens of our State. Students enjoy a learning environment conducive to developing the technical competence, intellectual capacity and professional responsibility for meeting this challenge as part of a total health care team.

A statewide remote-site program, initiated in 1976, provides students with experience in hospital and community based dentistry. This program also affords dental care and dental health education to children and adults from rural areas. More recently, the School became a participant in the Kellogg Initiative and began tracking selected students into a rural-based health sciences education program in the fall of 1992. Currently, all dental and dental hygiene students provide oral health care in dental offices throughout the State.

Both the dental and dental hygiene curricula have been revised and updated over the years to keep abreast of current information and techniques. In 1989 a nationally recognized preclinical simulation teaching laboratory was completed. In 1992 a state-of-the-art dental instrument sterilization system was implemented, along with infection control guidelines mandated by the American Dental Association. The School completed a major renovation of its Faculty Practice Clinic in 2004; renovated the Pediatric Dentistry Clinic in 2003; and is currently rebuilding its main student clinic, with a scheduled completion date of 2006.

Today 745 WVU dental graduates practice in 54 of the state's 55 counties, accounting for approximately 80% of the State's dentists. Continuing education programs are offered to keep practicing dentists well-informed. By providing the people of West Virginia with access to pertinent oral health services, the School of Dentistry reaches out to improve the oral health of West Virginia citizens while also fulfilling its comprehensive academic mission.