School of Dentistry receives ‘perfect’ accreditation report

Every seven years, each of the nation’s 56 dental schools is visited by the American Dental Association’s Commission on Dental Accreditation (ADA-CODA) to review the school’s accomplishments and suggest ways it could improve. Late last month, ADA-CODA representatives visited Temple’s School of Dentistry—and liked what they saw. They gave the school an unprecedented 13 commendations for areas in which it excels, and no recommendations for improvement.

For three years, associate dean for academic affairs Sarah Gray led the School of Dentistry in an exhaustive self-study in preparation for last month’s site visit. Almost every member of the faculty, staff and administration participated in the process.

The ADA-CODA has established a set of six major standards, and because each contains numerous subsets, schools must meet a total of about 100 very detailed standards, components and component sub-parts. These standards cover the areas of institutional effectiveness, educational mission, faculty and staff, educational support services, patient care services, and research program. Schools must demonstrate to ADA-CODA quantifiable results for each of the standards.

The school’s success holds special significance for those who know how far it has come. When Martin F. Tansy became dean in 1986, the school was recovering from “conditional approval” and “provisional approval” accreditation status results from the 1970s. In 1990, the school received full approval accreditation status, but also 45 recommendations. In 1997, the school retained its full approval accreditation status, and the number of recommendations dropped to 18.

With this year’s exemplary visit, staff and faculty are enjoying ADA-CODA’s official recognition for their years of hard work. Among other things, the commendations characterized the school’s pre-doctoral and advanced programs, its financial stability and its clinical care as “outstanding.”

Noted for the clinical excellence of its graduates, Temple’s dental school is also known for its rigorous requirements. Students must perform every type of procedure numerous times, and Temple’s total of approximately 150,000 annual patient visits is triple the average for other Pennsylvania dental schools.

“A flawless site visit could not have been accomplished without the assistance of a great many people: Our faculty, staff and students worked hard to bring this about, and our facilities staff took personal pride in making our building resplendent,” Tansy said. “It was a team effort, it worked, and from a historical perspective, it is a particularly sweet, yet unimaginable, accomplishment.”