History | Faculty of Dentistry

In spite of being one of the youngest faculties of the University of Debrecen, the Faculty of Dentistry has a significant educational experience. The roots of our University date back to 1538, when the Reformed College was founded, which is considered to be the predecessor of the University of Debrecen. The House of Representatives in 1912 adopted the bill declaring the establishment of the University. As early as 1921, the Medical Faculty of the Royal Hungarian Tisza István University was the first among the rural universities to petition the Minister of Education for setting up a dental department. Over the following years, the petition had been repeated several times. Meanwhile, the Medical Faculty of Debrecen, realizing the importance of this matter, decided to establish a Stomatology Polyclinic within the Department of Surgery in 1934. András Csilléry was invited by the Faculty to set up an Institute, and to be the professional lecturer of Dentistry. The institute was solemnly opened on February 15, 1935. From this time, the Stomatology subject was taught to general medicine students, and the specialist training started from the autumn of 1935, as well. The opening ceremony of the Clinic of Stomatology was held in 1940. The Clinic was equipped with a modern dental laboratory and also a dental museum and a library was established. From 1946 to 1979 Péter Adler was the director of the Clinic. Under his leadership, the Clinic developed widespread international relationships, and more than 500 publications, books, book chapters, monographs and dissertation were published. This was an excellent result, compared to other similar Hungarian institutions. The first dental students of the Dental Department began their studies in the 1976/77 academic year. The new building of the Stomatology Clinic, which was the second in the country serving exclusively the aims of dental education, was inaugurated in the 1981/82 school year. The departments were created in 1986. In 2003, the Faculty of Dentistry was established, which has become the most dynamically developing dental institution of the Central and Eastern European region during the past 10 years.