The year was 1924. Ribeirão Preto was still living through one of its wealthiest decades, being known worldwide thanks to its coffee farms. It was the land of kings and queens, of barons and baronesses of coffee.

During this remarkable although ephemeral time, a group of cultured, intelligent and foresighted men realized that material fortune and economical wealth are transitory but culture is eternal.

Those friends assembled on June 1st of that year and founded the School of Pharmacy and Dentistry of Ribeirão Preto, becoming the forerunners of the higher education at the High Mogiana region - northeast of São Paulo state. On March 5th, 1928, at the eve of the graduation ceremony of the first class of Pharmacy and Dentistry students, both courses were validated by an official act of the Minister of Justice.

Until December 6th, 1958 the school was managed by the Ribeirão Preto Teaching Association, when it was incorporated by São Paulo Government and integrated into the state's Higher Education System as an Isolated Institute. Francisco Degni was nominated its first director.

On December 30th 1974 it was integrated into the University of São Paulo, moving to a new installation located at the University's campus.

Although with 2 distinct courses, it has remained as only one entity until 1983 when, by March 10th it was split into the School of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Ribeirão Preto and the School of Dentistry of Ribeirão Preto.

Annually the school offers admittance for 80 selected students in its undergraduate Dentistry course.

It has graduate programs on Pediatrics (Master degree), Periodontics (Master degree), Oral Rehabilitation (Master and Doctoral degrees) and Restorative Dentistry (Master and Doctoral degrees). All of them are recognized by CAPES (country's graduate programs regulating body).

It also offers other graduate courses in many areas, some of which confer the Specialist degree.

The school's teaching body is composed by 88 professors, with most of them (over 90%) holding at least a Doctor degree.

The Clinical Supervision was created in 1982, with the purpose to organize and manage the clinics and didactic laboratories, important related services like sterilization, laundry, repairs, dosage and distribution of clinic material, as well as Patient Screening and Urgency and Emergency Care.

There are 197 dental offices installed in 7 clinics, available to both undergraduate and graduate students.

Supporting the clinics the school has 3 multidisciplinary laboratories and specific ones like Orthodontics, Dental Materials and Prosthetics, Ceramics, Casting, Microscopy, Histopathology, Anatomy and research laboratories like Genetics, Electromyography, Neurophysiology, Neuroendocrinology, Endodontics, Dentistry, Laser Welding, Corrosion Analysis, Cell Culture, Biomaterials Research, Restorative Dentistry with Laser, among others. It also counts with Specialized Service on Radiography and Orthodontics Documentation (SERDO), Laboratory for Analysis and Control of Odontological Radiographic Image (LACIRO), Integrated Center for Facial Deformity Studies and, in cooperation with the School of Medicine of Ribeirão Preto, the Clinic for Patients with Special Needs Care and the Clinic for Patients with Facial Mutilation Care.

Beyond teaching and research activities, our school provides health care to the community, performing several kinds of odontological procedures, ranging from the simplest to the more complex ones. Thanks to the support of the University of São Paulo's Dean our school has, in the last few years, undergone extensive building renovation. Also plenty of new equipment were acquired allowing us to continually provide dental care in full compliance with established biosafety rules.

We are committed to achieve several goals in our Undergraduate course:

• Continuous update of the curriculum;
• Preservation of the teaching excellence;
• Continuous pedagogical project evaluation;
• upgrade and update of didactic material;
• employment of new teaching methods;

our Graduate programs:

• achieving a minimum of CAPES grade 4 to all Master programs, and 5 to all Doctoral programs;
• increase the number of graduate programs;
• stimulate mutual cooperation of graduate and undergraduate students;
• increase the number of published papers, specially in international periodicals;

our Research:

• increase research activities at the school;
• promote increasingly exchange amongst our research groups and those from other national and international institutions;
• attract young talented doctors to our institution;
• increase the number of laboratories and improve the existing ones;

• The study of the basic principles of the materials science used in Dentistry, with exception of the drugs or therapeutical agents in the treatment of the oral diseases;
• The study of the different dental materials used in the dental clinic and its physical-chemical and mechanical properties;
• The study of the basis of the trials that characterize the dental materials;
• The study of the self-applicable preventive materials: toothpaste, antiseptic solutions, dental brushes and dental flosses;
• The study of chemically and heat-activated polymers;
• The study of dental alloys.
• To provide students a scientific formation, offering and demanding basic complementary knowledge in the field of mathematics, physics, and chemistry.

• On the different dental materials and mechanics used in the rehabilitator treatment and its physical-chemical properties;
• On the basis of the trials that characterize the dental materials employed in the rehabilitator treatment;
• On the materials used in the several phases of the rehabilitator prosthetic treatment;
• On tooth preparations with prosthetic purpose and all laboratorial phases involved in the confection of fixed prosthetic works;
• For the safe development of all clinical activities.

• On the different dental materials used in the rehabilitator treatment of edentulous patients and its physical-chemical and mechanical properties;
• On the basis of the trials that characterize the dental materials employed in the rehabilitator treatment of edentulous patients;
• On the materials used in the several phases of the rehabilitator prosthetic treatment of edentulous patients;
• For the safe development of all clinical and laboratorial activities in the confection of complete dentures.