1949-1968 | 1969-1975 | 1976-1990 | 1991-2004 | 2005-Present
1991
The college opens a second satellite dental clinic in downtown St. Petersburg, with a special focus on the dental needs of low-income elderly.
Dr. Anders Cendan, a member of the college’s first graduating class, is honored posthumously with the first Dental Alumni Association Outstanding Alumnus Award for his service to the profession, his community and the college.
1992
Academy One Hundred celebrates its Silver Anniversary, completing 25 years of supporting excellence in dental education in Florida.
The college’s dental service at Tacachale, a state residential community for the developmentally disabled in Gainesville, receives the American Dental Association’s Meritorious Award in Community Preventive Dentistry.
1993
In recognition of his distinguished career devoted to the study and treatment of facial pain, the college’s facial pain center is formally named in honor of Dr. Parker Mahan.
The Board of Regents approves establishment of the Center for Orphaned Autoimmune Disease (COAD), an interdisciplinary center focusing on Sjogren’s syndrome, an uncommon disease that damages moisture-producing glands in the eye and mouth (there is only one other such center in the country).
Dr. Ivar Mjör is appointed as the college’s Academy One Hundred Eminent Scholar.
1994
PerioGlas, a bioactive glass developed at UF for restoring eroded bone around teeth, goes on the worldwide market.
The college receives its largest private donation, a gift of $1.07 million from the estate of Marshall M. and Jeannette Butts DeWitt. This donation is matched with money from the Florida Major Gifts Trust Fund to create an endowment of $1.95 million for scholarships.
Dr. Donald W. Legler retires as dean and Dr. Joseph C. Kehoe is named acting dean.
1995
The Center for Development of Alternatives to Dental Amalgam is established through a five-year, $4 million grant from NIDR.
A Two-year Supplemental Education Program for Foreign-Trained Dentists is established.
A five-year grant of $1.5 million from NIDR to the Claude Denson Pepper Center for Research on Oral Health in Aging supports studies of dental problems of adults and how these influence dental care use.
As a component of the UF Health Science Center, the College of Dentistry shares with the other five colleges in the largest-ever private gift for student scholarships. A bequest of $3.3 million from the estate of Charlotte Liberty is matched with state dollars to create an endowment of $6.7 million.
March » Dr. Frank A. Catalanotto is named dean.
1996
Support for the Dental Alumni Fund reaches a record high, while the amount of donations to the Academy One Hundred Fund doubles from the previous year’s amount.
The Association of Dental Alumni completes fund-raising to create a student lounge on the first floor of the Dental Science Building. This much-anticipated facility provides a place for student organization meetings and a “place of their own” where students can eat, relax or study between classes and patients.
The college launches the Continuous Quality Improvement program.
TEAM (Together Everyone Achieves More), an innovative scheduling patient management system for the undergraduate dental clinics, is launched. The system is designed to provide flexibility for students in managing their patients and increase students’ experience in providing comprehensive care. Central to the system are teams of students who meet regularly with a faculty leader to review treatment plans and patient treatment progress.
The Center for Dental Biomaterials is established to enhance interdisciplinary research on the biocompatibility of dental restorative materials and the relationships between the microstructures and the properties of experimental and commercially available products. This center has been continuously funded by research grants from the National Institutes of Health. The first, in 1989, established the Specialized Materials Science Research Center; The second, in 1997, created the Center for Alternatives to Dental Amalgam.
The college’s chapter of the American Student Dental Association is named Ideal ASDA Chapter, the overall national chapter award, recognizing its high membership rate, many activities offered members, political involvement and efficient management. It also wins the ASDA Activities Award for the hands-on clinician programs offered students. Kim Jernigan is honored as National Delegate of the Year for Region V.
The college enhances students’ clinical education through an expanded program of rotations at community-based dental clinics.
1997
Dr. Thomas P. Floyd, a 1978 D.M.D. graduate, is the first UFCD alumnus to serve as president of the Florida Dental Association.
January–September » The college holds 25th Anniversary events that celebrate the past and chart the future. These include lectures at regional, state and international dental meetings, receptions for alumni and friends at district and state dental meetings, staff appreciation luncheon and Gala 25th Anniversary Weekend in Gainesville.
September » The college expands its presence in South Florida with the formal opening of a satellite clinic in Hialeah.
1998
March 30 » The UF Community Health Center, known as the Eastside Clinic, opens on Waldo Road in Gainesville. With this clinic, the UFCD Department of Pediatric Dentistry assumes a major role in providing low-cost dental services to Gainesville’s Eastside community.
1999
The UFCD Alumni Association sponsors the college’s first Professional Coating Ceremony, held to honor the transition of rising juniors from preclinical learning to hands-on clinical patient care.
The college implements a biopsychosocial, systems-based approach to instruction in the basic and behavioral sciences in years one and two.
February 26 »
The renovated, 5,000 square foot Preclinical Simulation laboratory opens 84 multimedia student workstations. The new, high-tech Sim Lab replaces the outdated “chicken on a stick” lab of earlier years.
2000
The nation’s first Center for Implant Dentistry, made possible by a $300,000 gift from Strauman AG, opens in the UFCD Oral Surgery Clinic.
The UFCD ASDA Chapter is named “Ideal ASDA Chapter” for a second time.
2002
After the resignation of Frank Catalanotto as dean, UF Vice President for Health Affairs Douglas Barrett appoints Associate Dean for Education Teresa A. Dolan, D.D.S., M.P.H., interim dean.
The Academy One Hundred and the UFCD Alumni Association merge to become the Academy of Alumni & Friends.
2003
May » Teresa A. Dolan is appointed dean.
June » More than 300 computer workstations and General Systems Design’s Quick Recovery clinic management system are installed enterprisewide in college clinics. The Quick Recovery system is a step closer to achieving an electronic patient chart system.
2004
Associate Dean for Faculty Practice and Continuing Education Samuel Low is elected president of the Florida Dental Association; Low is the first academician to serve in that position.
The college is the recipient of a $1.5 million U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration grant to expand access to oral health care and education for Florida’s residents. The project will faciliate installation of videoconferencing capability and digital radiology in all clinic sites statewide.
UFCD oral biologist Richard Lamont, Ph.D., completes mapping of all the proteins—or the proteome—expressed by the periodontal pathogen Porphyromonas gingivalis. Understanding P. gingivalis’ proteome will enable researchers to better study how the bacteria uses its complement of proteins to infect its human host to cause periodontal disease.
The National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research (NIDCR) awards the college a $2 million Research Infrastructure award, which receives a state match for a total of $4 million. The Research Infrastructure award is designed to enhance the college’s research infrastructure and capacity through faculty development and expansion of translational and clinical research.