Initially generally known as the Naval Dental Faculty, NPDS was based by the Bureau of Drugs and Surgical procedure (BUMED) in 1923 as a “division” of the Naval Medical Faculty in Washington, D.C. In these first years, NPDS offered instruction for newly commissioned dental officers in addition to hospital corpsmen who represented our first dental technicians. The college additionally operated an energetic prosthetic laboratory, a five-chair common dentistry clinic, a two-chair prosthodontic clinic, and a prosthodontic laboratory, all uncommon amongst dental colleges on the time.
From the very starting, NPDS earned a stellar popularity for its coaching capabilities and high quality of instruction. In 1924, Navy Surgeon Basic Rear Adm. Edward Stitt, the previous head of the Naval Medical Faculty, acknowledged that “no faculty or laboratory within the nation is healthier outfitted for our work and we’ve got endeavored to acquire from the main dental faculties and clinics one of the best that they’ve needed to supply to make up the programs to be given.”
College students in these first years acquired instruction in “medical division duties,” bacteriology, dental prosthesis, scientific dentistry, preventive dentistry, dental radiology, minor oral surgical procedure, common pathology, hematology, and metallurgy. Its plankowner instructors included Lt. Cmdrs. Harry Harvey and Joseph Mahoney, early leaders within the nascent Dental Corps; and Lt. Cmdr. William Darnall, Sr., who served as the primary head of the college. As we speak, the Darnall identify lives on because the namesake of the Walter Reed Nationwide Army Medical Heart’s Biomedical Library.
Each previous and current, analysis and innovation has been a trademark of the college. Navy dentists assigned to the college could be credited for growing the acrylic prosthetic eye to deal with the scarcity of glass eyes in World Struggle II; designing athletic mouth guards and casualty coaching gadgets just like the Navy’s first bleeding trauma mannikin (“Mr. Catastrophe”); growing a free working air-driven turbine handpiece that required much less stress to chop a tooth construction; and standing up an orofacial ache heart to guage and deal with sufferers with “atypical ache shows” like temporomandibular dysfunction, neuropathic ache, neuralgias, and headache issues.
NPDS relocated from Washington, D.C. to Bethesda, Md., in 1942, together with the Naval Hospital and Naval Medical Faculty. Collectively these three establishments turned a part of the Nationwide Naval Medical Heart (NNMC) together with the newly established Naval Medical Analysis Institute (NMRI).
Over the course of its historical past, NPDS has organizationally fallen beneath the Naval Hospital/Naval Medical Faculty (1923-1936); Naval Medical Heart Washington, D.C. (1936-1942); Nationwide Naval Medical Heart Bethesda, Md. (1942-1975); Nationwide Naval Dental Heart/Nationwide Naval Regional Dental Heart (1975-1983; 1989-2004); Naval Dental Clinic, Bethesda (1983-1989); Nationwide Naval Medical Heart (2004-2009); Navy Drugs Manpower, Personnel, Coaching and Training Command (Navy Drugs MPT&E) (2009-2012); and the Navy Drugs Skilled Growth Heart (NMPDC)/Navy Drugs Chief & Skilled Growth Heart (2012-Current).
Since February 1923, when NPDS launched its first common postgraduate course, superior training has remained certainly one of its best strengths. By way of the years the curriculum has continued to evolve and develop to fulfill the dental and operational wants of the Navy. In 1949, NPDS initiated the primary specialised programs or residencies. As we speak NPDS oversees over 30 world class persevering with teaching programs in dentistry and 7 totally accredited postgraduate dental residency applications.
After 100 years of service, NPDS stays a beacon for excellent scientific and evidence-based instruction and revolutionary cost-effective extremely productive coaching applications. Capt. Steven Stokes, NPDS dean, summarizes the college’s legacy finest: “Our unwavering core mission has been and stays regular in growing tomorrow’s leaders by coaching operationally oriented and demanding wartime dental specialists to fulfill Fleet necessities and distinctive navy KSA capabilities in assist of the Warfighter,” stated Stokes.
Beautifully augmented with coaching in fight and peacetime dentistry, NPDS’ ongoing Graduate Dental Training (GDE) institution and sustainment missions proceed to function the first pressure producing producer for the Fleet and represents the cornerstone for the postgraduate dental pipeline, projecting medical energy via revolutionary training and cutting-edge analysis for sustained Naval superiority.
Sources:
Annual Report of the Surgeon Basic, U.S. Navy to the Secretary of the Navy for Fiscal 12 months 1923. Washington, D.C.: Authorities Printing Workplace, 1923.
Annual Report of the Surgeon Basic, U.S. Navy to the Secretary of the Navy for Fiscal 12 months 1924. Washington, D.C.: Authorities Printing Workplace, 1924.
The Dental Corps of the US Navy: A Chronology, 1912-1987. seventy fifth Dental Corps Anniversary Committee, Inc, 1987.
Stokes, S. Naval Medical Postgraduate Dental Faculty Remarks, Accessed January 2023.
Stitt, E.R. Letter about Naval Dental Faculty. The Army Dental Journal, Vol. VI (1), March 1923.
Velez, E. Naval Medical Chief and Skilled Growth Command. Drugs and the Army, 17 Might 2022. Accessed from: https://www.medicineandthemilitary.com/relevant-articles/naval-medical-leader-and-professional-development-command
