Two hundred years after Case Western Reserve University’s founding, the School of Dental Medicine is shaping the future of dental education with bold vision and measurable progress. Guided by The Business of Dental Education, our comprehensive strategic plan approved in late 2023, we’ve spent the past two years transforming how we teach, learn, discover, and serve. From record-setting student achievement and groundbreaking research funding to innovative patient care models and expanded community partnerships, the milestones of 2024 and 2025 reflect both our tradition of excellence and our momentum for the future.
In alignment with our first strategic imperative—our people—a 6½-hour faculty retreat on Virtue-Based Leadership was held, and staff retreats were conducted in both 2024 and 2025.”
In our predoctoral and graduate education programs, the Class of 2025 achieved a 96.2% first-time pass rate on the Integrated National Board Dental Examination, which speaks to the strength of our faculty and our D3 INDBE Prep Course. We have completed a curriculum review, added a new TMD course, revised OSCEs for TMD, Special Needs, and Diverse Populations, created an Axiom dashboard to evaluate clinical performance, and added eGrading in Comprehensive Care, Oral Surgery, Periodontics, Endodontics and other professional classes. Dr. Ilser Turkyilmaz, professor and chair of the Department of Comprehensive Care, has been awarded a Nord Grant to enhance learning experiences for dental students by integrating cutting-edge digital tools and techniques into clinical practice and our curriculum.
In research and discovery, there has been $6.93 million in research funding obligated to the School of Dental Medicine, with $1.98 million awarded. We have 92 active IRB protocols, 24 active externally funded projects and our faculty had 90 publications in peer-reviewed journals in 2024.
We continue our important work in community dentistry on multi-level interventions among adults in primary care settings with a 5-year, $5 million grant.
In patient care, our comprehensive care clinical patient experiences are at 5-year all-time highs. Our faculty collaborated on an entirely new 60-plus page Standard 5 Patient Care Narrative. The Quality Assurance DMD Curriculum has been completely reinvisioned with the D3 and D4 QA courses, both of which feature student application of QA in the clinic. Two new DMD clinical competencies have been incorporated to enhance student education. They focus on managing a diverse patient population, multicultural interpersonal and communication skills, leadership of a dental team, practice management and oral healthcare delivery models.
In service and community, the dental clinic reported an amazing 152,636 completed procedures in the Dental Clinic across all departments in fiscal year 2024. This is a 15% increase over 2023. Our Lifelong Smiles Program, which completes nearly 300 patient visits every year, is out this summer providing oral health education and screenings at various locations, including the LGBTQ Center of Cleveland, the Cleveland Clinic Health Fair, Westerly Senior Apartments and the Cleveland Zoo. Our students will add Westerly Senior Apartments to their regular monthly service visits beginning in September. We are preparing to resume our Healthy Smiles Program with daily visits to Cleveland Schools to serve approximately 5,000 students in the academic year and we will host our annual Give Kids A Smile Day to serve students from another school district.
As this progress report shows, The Business of Dental Education has already guided meaningful change across every dimension of our mission, reflecting the commitment of our faculty, staff and students to drive our momentum forward. The strategic plan will continue to shape our path ahead, allowing us to build on these successes, embrace new opportunities, and ensure the School of Dental Medicine remains at the forefront of innovation, excellence in education and patient care.