1975: School of Dentistry admits its first students
Published on Monday, January 27, 2025
By: Gary Pettus, gpettus@umc.edu
During its 69-year history, the University of Mississippi Medical Center has made contributions to the state, and the world, in medicine, science and education. Each month, we’ll recognize at least one of these major accomplishments.
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This year marks the 50th anniversary of a milestone for the practice of dentistry in Mississippi: The state’s only dental school opened its doors to its first class. Until then, a homegrown, aspiring dentist had to go out of state for training. Two years earlier, in 1973, state legislators had authorized the new school, and its first dean, Dr. Wallace V. Mann, got to work, getting the program going in a relatively short time. Even so, students shared classrooms and other facilities with their counterparts in the schools of medicine and health related professions until they had a building of their own: a $10.8 million facility dedicated on March 29, 1978. On May 27, 1979, the school celebrated its first graduating class, which numbered fewer than two dozen. As the May 21 issue of The Clarion-Ledger newspaper put it beforehand, “The University of Mississippi School of Dentistry will soon lose its baby teeth – all 21 of them.”