Dental School Opens New Two-Story Addition to Present Building Today

The Dental School today moves into a new two-story addition to its present building as another move in the rapid expansion of that school. Its research program has increased ten fold in the past eight years.

The new annex provides more clinical facilities and doubles the space available for research into the causes of dental disease.

Expansion of the school's plant was due to a rapid growth in research and teaching. Dean Dr. Roy O. Greep, in announcing the move, pointed out that a drastic shortage of dentists exists in this country, and that the future of dental medicine lies in preventive rather than curative medicine.

He cited this as one reason for expanding the research facilities of the School.

The first floor houses seven labs, a dark room, two cold rooms, and a special equipment room designed for the use of delicate instruments--the electron microscope and diffraction grating spectrograph. An isotope area is also equipped for work with radioactive material.

On the second floor are individual offices for clinical instructors. When remodelling scheduled to be done this summer ends by September, all clinical teaching will come together within a compact area designed to afford close contact between faculty, students, and patients.

Diet Affects Health

The School is currently undertaking research into the matrix of dental tissues. Methods have already been developed by scientists at the School for separating the organic matrix from the inorganic. In addition, work is being done on the relation of diet to dental health. Investigators have found diets for rats that help of binder tooth decay.