According to National Institute for Dental Research figures for 2005, NYUCD ranked 6th in the nation in terms of federal research support. A number of factors account for NYUCD’s rapid rise in the national research rankings. NYUCD has thoroughly integrated research into the fabric of the College; recruited an Associate Dean for Research; recruited world-class senior research faculty; built the Bluestone Center for Clinical Research and new laboratories; created an environment that encourages interactions and collaborations among research faculty and their colleagues in Medicine, Nursing and Arts and Science at NYU, and at other research universities; and fostered mentoring relationships between senior and junior research faculty.

On April 15, 2006, the NYU Chapter of the Student National Dental Association led New York City’s first annual Oral Cancer Walk to raise awareness of a disease that kills over 7,000 American men and women annually. Free oral cancer screenings were available at sites along the walk route. The walk took place in Harlem to call attention to the fact that oral cancer disproportionately affects African-American men, who have the highest rates of oral cancer in the United States. Cosponsoring groups include: The Oral Cancer Foundation, the Oral Cancer Consortium of New York and New Jersey, NYU College of Dentistry, ABC 7 and the Yul Brynner Head and Neck Cancer Foundation.

In 2005, NYUCD became the first U.S. dental school to use a completely non-dissection anatomy curriculum. The curriculum uses plastinated specimens exclusively as an educational model. This approach to teaching dental anatomy combines layered dissection with slices from the head and neck. Students using these pre-dissected, plastinated specimens avoid the time-consuming process of peeling back tissue layer by layer into sections to learn where the important structures are. Because students are able to work from the inside out they can view every structure simultaneously in three dimensions.