The school was founded in 1896 as the College of Physicians and Surgeons with programs in dentistry, medicine, and pharmacy; Stanford School of Medicine and UoP dental were once the same institution before they split into two in 1918.
Faith Sai So Leong, also called Sai So Yeong, graduated from the College in 1904; she was the first Chinese-American woman to graduate from a school of dentistry and become a dentist in the United States, and the first woman of any race to graduate from the College.[2][3] In 1905 she was awarded the Doctor of Dental Surgery from that school,[4] and after a trial of the State Board of Dental Examiners, which delayed the awarding of licenses, she was granted a dental license in August 1905.[5]
In 1918, the college focused its education program solely on dentistry but retained its name as the College of Physicians and Surgeons until it was incorporated into the University of the Pacific in 1962. In 2004 the school was named in honor of Arthur A. Dugoni, a former president of the American Dental Association, who served 28 years as dean.[6]
The dental school has nine clinics open in San Francisco and Union City.[7]
University of the Pacific still relies heavily upon the Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act funding to provide services for patients with HIV/AIDS;[8] this funding is used to reimburse the school for services provided but has not increased in recent years despite increased costs of providing services.[9]
Three-year curriculum
The Dugoni School of Dentistry maintains an accelerated three-year DDS curriculum. Students complete a full curriculum of pre-clinical and basic sciences classes in their first year of dental school, as opposed to years one and two at other universities.
^White, J. D.; McQuillen, John Hugh; Ziegler, George Jacob; White, James William; Kirk, Edward Cameron; Anthony, Lovick Pierce (1905-01-01). The Dental Cosmos. S. S. White Dental Manufacturing Company.
