The University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Dentistry

In 1970, UMKC opened this facility for the School of Dentistry. It replaced the school’s previous antiquated building at 10^th and Troost and has enabled UMKC to provide quality dental education to thousands of students over the years. Its dental clinic has been a fixture on Hospital Hill for generations and has long provided affordable dental care to the people of Kansas City and the surrounding areas. The School of Dentistry was UMKC’s first unit on Hospital Hill and paved the way for the creation of the UMKC School of Medicine Building in 1974 and the Health Sciences Building housing the School of Nursing and Health Studies and the School of Pharmacy in 2007. 

The history of the UMKC School of Dentistry traces back to the founding of Kansas City’s first school of medicine, The Kansas City College of Physicians and Surgeons in 1869. The school was renamed the Kansas City Medical College in 1880 and relocated to a facility at 7^th and Washington. Here they founded a Department of Dentistry in 1881. The program proved popular and by 1888, it had outgrown the facilities at 7^th and Washington. The Trustees of the Kansas City Medical College therefore decided to create a separate professional school, the Kansas City Dental College.

From 1888-1892, the Kansas City Dental College operated in rented space in the YMCA building at 9^th and Locust. During this time, the trustees raised the money to purchase a two-story brick building at the northwest corner of 10^th and Troost. This became the school’s home until 1913, when the school erected its own three-story building next door.

In 1890, a second Kansas City school of dentistry was founded, the Western Dental College. It originally operated in a four-story building at 12 W. 10^th street, just down the street from its rival the Kansas City Dental College. Over time, the Western Dental College grew and expanded to several locations around downtown. Understandably, the two schools were rivals and vied for students, who came not just from Kansas City but from all over the Midwest. The Kansas City Dental College “Molars” competed against the Western Dental College “Bushwackers” in sports such as basketball, football and baseball. Each developed proprietary techniques and made advances in dental science, which they were proud of and used in the recruitment of students. Both schools prospered, especially during the First World War, when they trained dentists for the army.

 However, after the war, the National Dental Association approached Dean Dr. Roy Rinehart of the Western Dental College and Dean Dr. C.C. Allen of the Kansas City Dental College and suggested that the two institutions stop competing against each other and instead merge in order to create the best possible dental education in Kansas City. The two men agreed and entered negotiations. In 1919, the two schools merged into the Kansas City-Western Dental College. Dr. Allen was the initial dean and Dr. Rinehart served as treasurer. After 3 years, Dr. Allen retired, and Dr. Rinehart became dean. The new school operated at the facility on the northwest corner of 10^th and Troost. In 1923, the school built a new facility, across the street on the northeast corner of 10^th and Troost. This would be home to the school for the next 47 years. This new building had more space for the school’s expanded clinic, Pedodontia department and graduate programs, which Dr. Rinehart had developed. The new facilities were granted the coveted “A” rating from the Dental Educational Council.

As the years progressed, the national requirements for dental education became more rigorous. Applicants to dental schools were required to have 30 college credits in pre-dental education, which included courses in chemistry, biology and physics. The Kansas City-Western Dental College tried to work out arrangements with the Kansas City Junior College and William Jewel College to provide these prerequisites. The school also taught many of these courses itself in an effort to give its applicants the needed prerequisite education. But what it really needed was a university in Kansas City with which to affiliate.

The Great Depression weakened the school financially and exacerbated its difficulties in finding qualified applicants. In 1941, Dr. Rinehart approached University of Kansas City President Clarence Decker about merging the Kansas City-Western Dental College with the university. UKC would be able to provide a pre-dentistry course of study and a steady stream of applicants. This began an association that lasts to the present day. The school now became the University of Kansas City School of Dentistry. It continued to operate out of its facility at 10^th and Troost, with the exception of the freshman, who spent their first year on the Volker Campus. After 1947, the freshmen dental students used one of five surplus army buildings, which the university had erected on the Volker Campus.

When Dr. Rinehart passed away in 1957, the university hired Dr. Hamilton Robinson, a nationally recognized authority on oral cancers, as his replacement. There is a legend at the School of Dentistry that Dr. Hamilton was told that there would be a new facility waiting for him when he got to Kansas City. When he arrived, he asked the university’s administration where the new building was. They told him, “You have to build it!”

Whatever the veracity of the story, Dr. Robinson made it his mission to build a new facility for the School of Dentistry to replace the aging and outdated structure at 10^th and Troost. In addition to serving as Dean for the School of Dentistry, Dr. Robinson became involved in crafting Kansas City’s master plan for redeveloping Hospital Hill in the early 1960s. Part of this plan became the relocation of the School of Dentistry to Hospital Hill at 25^th and Cherry on land donated by the city. Dr. Robinson tirelessly raised money for a new Dental School by helping the university lobby federal and state authorities, and engaging the school’s alumni as well as the Kansas City community.

 He succeeded in raising the needed $7.5 million, which included $2 million in private funds, a $4 million federal grant and a $1.5 million state appropriation. When the new UMKC School of Dentistry opened in 1970 at this location, it was the most advanced facility of its kind in the country. The school could accommodate six hundred dental students, 100 dental hygiene students, and 100 graduate students. I housed the largest dental clinic in the country. The labs and clinic have been remodeled several times over the last 50 plus years, ensuring that this building remains one of the premier facilities for dental education in the country. 

The UMKC School of Dentistry was UMKC's first academic unit on Hospital Hill and in many ways it paved the way for the university's Hospital Hill Campus. The School of Medicine joined it in 1974, the School of Nursing in 1979 and the School of Pharmacy in 2007. The future for the School of Dentistry includes a new dental clinic in UMKC's Health Sciences Building now under construction at 25th and Charlotte.

Olson, James C.. Serving the University of Missouri: A Memoir of Campus and System Administration. Columbia, Mo. University of Missouri Press, 1993.

Jacobs, Joseph F.. History of the University of Kansas City School of Dentistry. Kansas City, Mo.. Alumni Association of The University of Kansas City School of Dentistry, 1949.

O'Leary, James. "Dental School Lauded As Revolutionary." Unews (Kansas City, Mo.) March 6th, 1970. .4.