Dentistry Magazine 2025 | A message from the Dean

Greetings from the School of Dentistry! 

This year has been a year of excellence at the University of Minnesota School of Dentistry. Our students, faculty and staff continue to be exceptional in their education, delivery of patient care and pursuit of new knowledge through research. This year:

• Our clinics and outreach rotations provided over 118,000 patient appointments, and have advanced growth in teledentistry.
• We celebrated the Oral Pathology Lab as it approaches 100 years of diagnosis, detection and discovery.
• We increased our community-engaged footprint.

In this edition, you’ll learn about about how our whole health approach saved a patient’s life, how we cultivate community excellence and connectedness across the state, how our current students are making an impact in and outside the clinics, our new faculty leaders within the school,the numerous and prestigious awards our faculty received and how research is impacting oral health care of tomorrow. 

These achievements are the result of individuals, to be sure, but also our community—faculty, staff, students, alumni, donors and partners—across the state. Our collective pursuit makes achieving our mission to advance health through scientific discovery, innovative education and the highest-quality care for all communities come true. 

As we look to the future, I invite you to join us on our journey to the pursuit of excellence through Transforming our dental school for the future. The University of Minnesota Board of Regents approved the School of Dentistry to begin planning for a renovation, prioritizing enhancements in a student-forward preclinic, revitalized patient clinics and the incorporation of cutting-edge technology. Join us as we educate the next generation of oral health care providers for the state of Minnesota and beyond by investing in our rapidly aging facilities. Learn more about this work and how you can join us on page 38. 

I look forward to seeing you on campus, in the School of Dentistry, sharing your knowledge and passion for oral health with our current students and residents. In the meantime, I hope this magazine serves as a point of reflection of the impact of an education from the University Minnesota School of Dentistry across the state of Minnesota. 

This article initially appeared in the 2025 edition of Dentistry Magazine.