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The School of Dentistry

Mississippi's only dental school welcomed its first class in 1975. The need and enthusiasm for comprehensive dental education and training in the state were apparent when over 500 applications came in for only 25 spots.

The School of Dentistry was authorized by the legislature in 1973, was accredited in 1975 and opened three months later. Dr. Norman C. Nelson, then the vice chancellor of UMMC, praised Dr. Wallace V. Mann, the dental school's first dean, for getting the program up and running in such a short period of time. The original School of Dentistry building was completed in 1977.