Flagship of Navy Dental Education Marks 100 Years

Originally known as the Naval Dental School, NPDS was founded by the Bureau of Medicine and Surgery (BUMED) in 1923 as a “department” of the Naval Medical School in Washington, D.C. In those first years, NPDS provided instruction for newly commissioned dental officers as well as hospital corpsmen who represented our first dental technicians. The school also operated an active prosthetic laboratory, a five-chair general dentistry clinic, a two-chair prosthodontic clinic, and a prosthodontic laboratory, all rare among dental schools at the time.

From the very beginning, NPDS earned a stellar reputation for its training capabilities and quality of instruction. In 1924, Navy Surgeon General Rear Adm. Edward Stitt, the former head of the Naval Medical School, stated that “no school or laboratory in the country is better equipped for our work and we have endeavored to obtain from the leading dental colleges and clinics the best that they have had to offer to make up the courses to be given.”

Students in those first years received instruction in “medical department duties,” bacteriology, dental prosthesis, clinical dentistry, preventive dentistry, dental radiology, minor oral surgery, general pathology, hematology, and metallurgy. Its plankowner instructors included Lt. Cmdrs. Harry Harvey and Joseph Mahoney, early leaders in the nascent Dental Corps; and Lt. Cmdr. William Darnall, Sr., who served as the first head of the school. Today, the Darnall name lives on as the namesake of the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center’s Biomedical Library.

Both past and present, research and innovation has been a hallmark of the school. Navy dentists assigned to the school can be credited for developing the acrylic prosthetic eye to address the shortage of glass eyes in World War II; designing athletic mouth guards and casualty training devices like the Navy’s first bleeding trauma mannikin (“Mr. Disaster”); developing a free running air-driven turbine handpiece that required less pressure to cut a tooth structure; and standing up an orofacial pain center to evaluate and treat patients with “atypical pain presentations” like temporomandibular disorder, neuropathic pain, neuralgias, and headache disorders.

NPDS relocated from Washington, D.C. to Bethesda, Md., in 1942, along with the Naval Hospital and Naval Medical School. Collectively these three institutions became part of the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) along with the newly established Naval Medical Research Institute (NMRI).

Over the course of its history, NPDS has organizationally fallen under the Naval Hospital/Naval Medical School (1923-1936); Naval Medical Center Washington, D.C. (1936-1942); National Naval Medical Center Bethesda, Md. (1942-1975); National Naval Dental Center/National Naval Regional Dental Center (1975-1983; 1989-2004); Naval Dental Clinic, Bethesda (1983-1989); National Naval Medical Center (2004-2009); Navy Medicine Manpower, Personnel, Training and Education Command (Navy Medicine MPT&E) (2009-2012); and the Navy Medicine Professional Development Center (NMPDC)/Navy Medicine Leader & Professional Development Center (2012-Present).

Since February 1923, when NPDS launched its first general postgraduate course, advanced education has remained one of its greatest strengths. Through the years the curriculum has continued to evolve and expand to meet the dental and operational needs of the Navy. In 1949, NPDS initiated the first specialized courses or residencies. Today NPDS oversees over 30 world class continuing education programs in dentistry and seven fully accredited postgraduate dental residency programs.

After 100 years of service, NPDS remains a beacon for outstanding scientific and evidence-based instruction and innovative cost-effective highly productive training programs. Capt. Steven Stokes, NPDS dean, summarizes the school’s legacy best: “Our unwavering core mission has been and remains steady in developing tomorrow’s leaders by training operationally oriented and critical wartime dental specialists to meet Fleet requirements and unique military KSA capabilities in support of the Warfighter,” said Stokes.

Superbly augmented with training in combat and peacetime dentistry, NPDS’ ongoing Graduate Dental Education (GDE) establishment and sustainment missions continue to serve as the primary force generating producer for the Fleet and represents the cornerstone for the postgraduate dental pipeline, projecting medical power through innovative education and cutting-edge research for sustained Naval superiority.

Sources:

Annual Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Navy to the Secretary of the Navy for Fiscal Year 1923. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1923.

Annual Report of the Surgeon General, U.S. Navy to the Secretary of the Navy for Fiscal Year 1924. Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office, 1924.

The Dental Corps of the United States Navy: A Chronology, 1912-1987. 75th Dental Corps Anniversary Committee, Inc, 1987.

Stokes, S. Naval Medical Postgraduate Dental School Remarks, Accessed January 2023.

Stitt, E.R. Letter about Naval Dental School. The Military Dental Journal, Vol. VI (1), March 1923.

Velez, E. Naval Medical Leader and Professional Development Command. Medicine and the Military, 17 May 2022. Accessed from: https://www.medicineandthemilitary.com/relevant-articles/naval-medical-leader-and-professional-development-command