Plaza Dentistry

Chair:
Clinical Professor, Periodontology and Implant Dentistry

OVERVIEW

The mission of the Department of Periodontics at NYU Dentistry is to:

1. Educate and train predoctoral and postgraduate students within the framework of contemporary periodontics,
2. Provide optimal, comprehensive periodontal care for the highly-diverse population of the New York City region, with rigorous quality assurance and patient satisfaction,
3. Promote scholarly activity that reaches regional, national and international audiences,
4. Engage in clinical- and laboratory-based research, and
5. Promote and encourage our graduates to enter academic dentistry to address the current shortage of periodontics faculty.

In fulfilling this mission, the long-term goal of the Department is recognition as one of the leading programs in periodontics through outstanding educational programs, excellence in patient care, research, and scholarship.

Created from the Departments of Periodontics and Implant Dentistry, it represented a natural fusion of two highly acclaimed departments. The Department of Periodontology was created in 1924, and was the first undergraduate department devoted exclusively to periodontics to be established in a dental college in this country. In 1927, postgraduate instruction was introduced, and years later the department pioneered in giving postgraduate courses in the Spanish language. From 1928, the department continued to progress to a point where it represented one of the leading departments of its kind in the country, exemplified during this period by one of its most illustrious chairmen, Dr. Samuel Charles Miller (1934), author of the classic Textbook of Periodontia, which had three editions (1938, 1945, and 1950). In 1950, the department’s name was changed to the Department of Periodontia and Oral Medicine, presaging current efforts to integrate medicine and dentistry. Currently, the department includes approximately 40 full- and part-time faculty members equally divided between the D.D.S. and postgraduate programs.

The Arthur Ashman Department of Implant Dentistry was founded in 1991 with three Fellows. In 1993 the International Program was established and has grown rapidly. At present the department has trained 122 international trained dentists from 26 countries along with 54 Fellows. In fact, the department has the largest implant-training program worldwide.

Today, the International Program’s average combined class size (first- and second-year residents) is approximately 37 per year along with approximately six Fellows. Each year the program attracts residents from around the world who realize that with the advancements in technology that have occurred, implants are clearly the wave of the future.