The Faculty of Dentistry was formally instituted in the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) in September 1975 after years of careful planning. The foundation students were admitted that same year. The first task embarked upon was the establishment of a dental service to sharpen the awareness of the Ife-Ijesha Community to the need for the types of services, which a dental teaching hospital will be providing. Before this time, there was a dental center at the State Hospital, which provided rather limited routine dental services to patients. It was therefore found expedient to commence initial efforts at this site. Thus for the first five years, 1975-80, all dental services were provided from the Ife State Hospital Dental Center whose breadth and scope of services had been greatly expanded to cover practically all specialties of dental practice. Meanwhile the site for the University of Ife Dental Teaching Hospital was being set up at the University main Campus in Ile-Ife. Full-time services commenced at this new site late 1980.
On the academic front, the University of Ife Dental School commenced the teaching of students on the main campus of the University as the Department of Dental and Oral Health in October 1976. It was later re-organized in 1983 to three (3) departments namely:
- Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery and Oral Pathology.
- Department of Preventive Dentistry (including Children’s and Community Dentistry).
- Department of Restorative Dentistry.
The three (3) Departments constituted the school of Dentistry, which was headed by a Sub-Dean. In 1992, the school became a full-fledged Faculty following the recommendation of the National Universities Commission (NUC) visitation panel of 1991. In fulfillment of the accreditation criteria, an additional department was created in 2003 making a total of four departments:
- Department of Oral/Maxillofacial Surgery and Oral Pathology;
- Department of Preventive and Community Dentistry;
- Department of Child Dental Health; and
- Department of Restorative Dentistry.
Undergraduate training in Dentistry in the early years (1976-1985) consisted of two parts – Bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences followed by a three-year clinical training leading to the award of B.Ch.D degree or Bachelor’s degree in Dental Surgery. This undergraduate training in dentistry lasted a total period of seven years after the West African School Leaving Certificate or G.C.E. ordinary level. The new B.Ch.D Curriculum was however introduced at the beginning of the 1982/83 academic session.
The B.Ch.D curriculum of the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife was approved by senate in 1978 and has since been in operation. This review, mandated by the Faculty Board of Health Sciences became necessary in view of the significant alterations in the B.Ch.D curriculum approved by the University’s senate.
The major changes carried out in the B.Ch.D curriculum included the following:
- Reduction of the duration of training from 7 years after W.A.S.C. or G.C.E. (‘O’ level) to 6 years. The new B.Ch.D curriculum now covered a total of six years as follows:
Pre-Professional Courses -1 year
Pre-Clinical Courses – 2 years
Clinical Training – 3 years
- Abolition of the compulsory B.Sc. degree in Health Sciences. It was replaced by the first Professional examination in Dentistry conducted at the end of Part II.
- Earlier contact of dental students with the study and practice of Dentistry. Their first contact with dentistry in the new programme takes place in Part II instead of Part IV as was the case in the old programme.
- Devotion of more time to clinical dentistry.
In addition to training undergraduate dental students, the Faculty is involved in the training of resident doctors in a number of specialties in Dentistry. In response to the public oral health concerns locally and internationally, our Faculty has designed postgraduate programmes in dental public health, which was approved by the Senate and took off in the 2004/2005 academic session.
Academic staff members also carry out research, which over the years have focused largely on clinical based research, epidemiology of Oral diseases and reports of interesting clinical cases. The Faculty provides clinical services to patients at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex through the academic staff members who are Honorary Consultants to the hospital.
The Faculty is considered to be one of the “first generation” and best Faculties of Dentistry in Nigeria. It strives to achieve the goal of producing dentists of high quality and in such numbers as are required to meet the health delivery needs of the nation at community and hospital levels.
