EDUCATION

Sponsored by: MUSC James B. Edwards College of Dental Medicine

The history of dental education in South Carolina begins in 1834 when the Medical College of South Carolina graduated its first medical student who specialized in dentistry. A handful of other dental doctors graduated in the following decades and by 1894 Dr. Francis LeJau Parker, dean of the Medical College, advocated starting a program of dentistry as part of the college. That idea never materialized, even as the need for dental education in the state continued to grow. Instead dozens of South Carolina students attended dental school in other states through the Southern Regional Education Plan.

At the May 7, 1951 meeting of the South Carolina Dental Association, Dr. Carl L. Busbee of Conway, South Carolina, requested the appointment of a committee to study the feasibility of establishing a dental college at the Medical College of the State of South Carolina. The committee was sponsored by the South Carolina Dental Association the following year and engaged Dr. J. F. Volker, dean of the University of Alabama School of Dentistry, to survey South Carolina’s dental needs. The “Volker Report” demonstrated a growing need for a school of dentistry in the state, and the SCDA recommended its affiliation as part of the Medical College of South Carolina. In 1953, the General Assembly of South Carolina passed an act authorizing the creation of such a school. However, it was not until the 1964 session that the legislature funded the 1953 authorization.