Our heritage in dental education

The new School of Dentistry at RCSI University of Medicine and Health Sciences becomes just the third in the State, and the first to open in over 100 years. But dentistry is not a new endeavour for our University.

We have a strong heritage in dental education and training, running an undergraduate dental school for 99 years up to 1976, granting a Licenciate in Dental Surgery to some 1,600 dentists. Theodore Stack, the first Professor of Dentistry in either England or Ireland was appointed at RCSI in 1884. He was headed for a career in medicine when a bout of rheumatic fever left him so deaf, at 26, that he could no longer use a stethoscope.

Today, the RCSI Faculty of Dentistry continues to train and examine at postgraduate levels and RCSI has responsibility for the training of oral and maxillofacial surgeons in Ireland.

Since our university was established in 1784 as a surgical training college, generations of RCSI academics and leaders have sought out ways of responding to the needs of populations and health systems. From being the first university in Ireland to introduce graduate entry medicine to the first to introduce a programme on nurse prescribing, the university has been innovative and forward-looking in its approach and single-minded in its focus on advancing healthcare and transforming the patient experience.

The aspiration of the School of Dentistry is to reflect the RCSI mission to educate, nurture and discover for the benefit of human health, in the field of dentistry.

Join our community

The School of Dentistry at RCSI is committed to creating a learning environment that fosters active, engaged, and authentic learning experiences and which promotes lifelong learning for professional practice. Our learning will actively promote positive growth, resilience and wellbeing and our students will benefit from RCSI’s well-established student welfare and career support ecosystem.

To deliver on our ambition, we are building a world-class community of teaching staff. We want to engage with practising dentists, dental nurses and others involved in the provision of dental care and who share our commitment to delivering an unrivalled and transformative student experience.

RCSI provides an exciting and challenging environment for committed and talented people to pursue their career. The university is committed to a culture of respect, collaboration, scholarship and innovation. In the School of Dentistry, we are open to offering potential joint appointments, and we will offer access to training, academic titles, library, and research opportunities.