The Story of our Health Message

A School of Dentistry

As the medical work of the Seventh-day Adventist Church has grown, the need for missionary dentists has proportionately increased. For many years such dentists had to obtain their education in schools of dentistry not owned and operated by the denomination. This involved disadvantages, especially for the student, inasmuch as such schools neither give the desired religious instruction nor make allowance for the convictions of those who hold sacred the seventh-day Sabbath. Hence the need for a Seventh-day Adventist school of dentistry became more and more evident. SHM 405.3

After special study had been given to the matter, the Autumn Council held in Cleveland, Ohio, October 19-29, 1951, voted “for the launching of a Seventh-day Adventist School of Dentistry, to begin operating if possible by September of 1953,” “that the School of Dentistry be a part of and under the general administration of the College of Medical Evangelists,” and “that the School of Dentistry be located at Loma Linda for the entire four-year program.”—“Actions of the Autumn Council,” October 19-29, 1951, p. 22. SHM 406.1

Thus another milestone was reached in the story of our health message. The organization of the School of Dentistry was undertaken at once, and students were accepted to enter in the autumn of 1953 to begin the four-year course leading to the degree of Doctor of Dental Surgery. The school opened on time and with an enrollment of forty-two students. SHM 406.2