Ira B. Lamster, DDS, MMSc

In 2006, the dental school at Columbia University was renamed the “College of Dental Medicine” (CDM). This change reflects the College’s current emphasis, and of even greater importance, is our direction for the future.

The predoctoral program at the College of Dental Medicine has three guiding principles. First, dental students at Columbia receive their first 2 years of basic science courses with students at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons. Second, the predoctoral students at Columbia are given the option to pursue a dual degree. Currently, there are joint programs with the Business School (MBA), School of Public Health (MPH), Teacher’s College (MA or MEd), and a joint DDS-PhD program in Bioinformatics is in development. Third, the predoctoral students at CDM are strongly urged to continue on for postdoctoral/residency training. In the past 5 years, more than 95% of the graduates have done so. The research program at CDM is based on the concept of oral and craniofacial research in the context of health sciences research.

The research program has been developed along thematic areas, which include: 1) the interrelationship of oral and systemic diseases; 2) social determinants of oral health and disease; 3) dental and craniofacial engineering and; 4) skin and mucosal biology.

Our patient care mission is strongly focused on providing oral health care services to the underserved. In the last fiscal year, more than 50% of the 120,000 patient care visits at the College were provided to Medicaid recipients. These services are offered in our onsite clinic, and our network of offsite clinical facilities.