History

Brophy notes that negotiations had begun for a dental school in Chicago as early as 1869 but it was not until 1883 that one actually opened as the Collegiate Department of the Chicago Dental Infirmary.  Originally a graduate school for M.D.’s who wished to add dentistry; it found difficulty in competing with other dental schools.  In 1884 it received a second charter as the Chicago College of Dental Surgery, with a three-year program focusing on practical dentistry.

 

 Soon after, it became the largest dental school in the world.  The 1915 announcement shows a study body of almost 500, taught by 18 professors assisted by 16 instructors.

 

Among key accomplishments cited by the school was a four- week session of in-service training for practicing dentists.  C.C.D.S. may also have been the first school to provide a laboratory to culture bacteria, thus showing that cavities were caused by bacteria.

 

Students had an active Y.M.C.A. which provided much of the social life of the college.  The 1912 Dentos shows four professional fraternities with chapters on campus.  One of these—Alpha Zeta Gamma—was an organization of Jewish students.  

In 1889 the college became associated with Lake Forest College, and later with Valparaiso University and finally in 1923 with Loyola University, taking the name Loyola University Department of Dentistry.  Loyola University closed the school in 1993.