Dental Faculty

The series comprises 23 files with approximately 750 items in total. The files are arranged within four sub-series: Dental Deans’ Correspondence 1993-1999; Dental Secretaries’ Correspondence 1996-1999; Dental Faculty Correspondence and Papers 1963-1999, a

Following the passage of the Dentists Act (1878), a formal qualification in dentistry was recognized in Scotland for the first time. Both the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh and the Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (as the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow was originally called) were empowered to grant a Licence in Dental Surgery (LDS). The Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow elected a ‘Dental Board’ on 19 January 1879, and the Board examined the first candidates for the LDS later that year.

The Glasgow School of Dental Surgery was established at Anderson’s College in June 1879, and became part of the University of Glasgow in 1948. In the latter year, the LDS was superseded as the undergraduate dental qualification by the Bachelor of Dental Surgery (BDS), and the Royal Faculty of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (as it was by then known) began concentrating exclusively on postgraduate dental qualifications. The Royal Faculty had introduced its first postgraduate qualification in dentistry, the Higher Dental Diploma (HDD), in 1920. This examination was open to holders of the LDS with at least 12 months’ study or practice of dental surgery as a registered dentist. In 1949, the Royal Faculty established a Diploma in Dental Orthopaedics (DDO), which was the first postgraduate diploma in orthodontics to be awarded in the United Kingdom.

Following the passage of the Dentists Act (1921), the Royal Faculty created a Dental Committee to advise its Council on matters pertaining to education, training and examinations in dentistry. A Dental Council replaced the Dental Committee in 1967. That same year, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow (RCPSG), as it had now become, introduced a Fellowship in Dental Surgery (FDS) because the rest of the UK did not consider the HDD to have equivalent status to a Fellowship.

In 1990, the Dental Fellows collectively became the Dental Faculty of the RCPSG, and the Convenor of the Dental Council became the Dean of the Dental Faculty. Since 2003, the Dean of the Dental Faculty has been known as the Vice-President (Dental). As well as dentists working in hospital and university services, the Dental Faculty now includes dentists working in general dental practice and in the community dental service.

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