Fast Facts

The mission of the James B. Edwards College of Dental Medicine is to develop transformative leaders and oral health providers to improve wellness. Our commitment to education, research and patient care will be driven by a collaborative and entrepreneurial approach that will result in global impact on the profession.

Student Information

• 311 students in the Doctor of Dental Medicine (D.M.D.) degree program
  • 1,342 applicants for a class size of 78
  • First-time pass rate is 98% for the Integrated National Board Dental Exam (INBDE)
  • 72% of first-year students come from in-state; 28% out-of-state
• 4 students in the dual-degree Dental Scientist Training Program (D.M.D./Ph.D.)
• 41 residents in 7 advanced dental education and graduate programs
  • 22 of whom are in the Master of Science in Dentistry program 

 

Innovation in Education

• D.M.D. student curriculum incorporates digital dentistry, including instruction in a CAD/CAM lab with over 30 scanners.
• First dental school in the Americas to adopt interactive Dentaroid robot, a high-fidelity teaching tool for dental patient simulations.
• Pilot research project with Simodont, a virtual reality 3-D simulation tool installed in 2022, explores new methods of teaching students to prep a tooth.

 

Facilities

• State-of-the-art clinical education center with 189 operatories
• Planned series of satellite clinical locations, including the Dental and Oral Health Center at the West Ashley Medical Pavilion, which opened August 2022
• Renovated Basic Science facility
• Two tiered classrooms exclusively for CDM
• Collaborative Learning Enrichment classroom
• Pre-clinical Simulation Laboratory
• Dedicated research space for Clinical Oral Health Research

 

Research

• The college ranked #34 in research funding from NIDCR in 2021 with $1,278,442.
• Grants awarded for 2022 total $4,394,582.
• Center for Oral Health Research supports investigational clinical and basic translational research

 

Patient Care, Service and Outreach

• 53,189 patient visits in 2021
• Expansion to the Ryan White and the West Ashley Medical Pavilion clinics
• As part of their fourth-year clinical curriculum, D.M.D students complete two weeks of community-based care rotations throughout the state with underserved populations, including in Greenville, Myrtle Beach, Mount Pleasant, Johns Island, Ladson and Charleston
• Over 50 students participate in international mission trips annually
• Dedicated clinic for patients with special health care needs

 

Partners in Education and Service

• We collaborate with state health-related agencies on a variety of oral health improvement initiatives
• We work with industry leaders to advance innovations in dental materials, clinical care, and care delivery models
• We partner with safety net and community-based providers in rural and underserved areas to address oral health care access, continuing education, and advocacy
• We partner with community-based coalitions and advocacy groups to support their oral health promotion outreach and education initiatives
• The resources made available through our philanthropic and federal partners make it possible to provide collaborative leadership, integrated care and interprofessional practice.

 

Philanthropy

• The college has graduated over 2,800 alumni as of May 2022.
• More than $57 million has been donated to the college over its lifetime from its alumni and friends.
  • Additional future donations are committed, including multiple endowments.
• Over $23 million of generous and sustained private support to capital projects has helped build state-of-the-art facilities for the college’s pre-clinical curriculum and clinical educational areas while providing leading-edge equipment and technologies for discovery and innovation.
• The college embarked on a $10 million Pay It Forward scholarship campaign in 2018, to help reduce student debt load.
  • This includes a volunteer committee-led effort to endow full scholarships for under-served minority students to enhance diversity at the college and increase access to oral health care in our communities.

 

Economic Impact

• Faculty: 49 full-time, 23 part-time, 14 emeriti, 175 volunteer affiliate
  Staff: 130