Peradeniya Uni. Dental Faculty 31 years old
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UoP VC Upul B. Dissanayake cuts the ribbon to open the new building, with the Dean of the Faculty, Prof W.M. Tillekeratne alongside
It was an ‘open house’ Exhibition, as the Faculty of Dental Sciences, University of Peradeniya (UoP), celebrated 31 years. The Exhibition was twofold. One was to initiate Dentistry to schoolchildren and the other was the importance of Oral health. Apart from these two, there was an educative exhibition of the various aspects of Dentistry. The first ever Dental School was established in Baltimore, as the Baltimore School of Dental Surgery in 1840- 177 years ago. In Sri Lanka, the registration of the first Dentist, Seperling Christopher, qualified in the UK, on August 21, 1915, could be considered as the day Dentistry was established in Sri Lanka.
The establishment of Dentistry goes back to 1938, with the establishment of The Ceylon Dental Hospital in Cinnamon Gardens, adjacent to the Colombo Eye Hospital. The outbreak of World War II curtailed its activities and it could only conduct a 2-year Diploma course for a Licence to practise Dentistry. But the need of the hour was to establish an Independent Dental Profession leading to a Licentiate or Bachelors Degree in Dentistry. Hence, a Dental School was established as a part of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Ceylon, Colombo, with a Board of study in Dental Surgery.
The Board comprised Dr W. Balendra, Dr A.A. Gomez and Dr S. Goonewardene. Of the first 2 batches of 11 students, the first to receive the Degree in Dental Surgery was Prof S.B. Dissanayake, while the rest were awarded the Licentiate to practise Dentistry. With the blessings of Sir Ivor Jennings- first Vice Chancellor (VC) of the newly established UoP- a Dental School was established at “Ferens” Boarding of Kingswood College, in 1953, with Prof McKeag as Prof of Dental Surgery. With the demise of Prof McKeag, Dr S.B. Dissanayake was appointed Prof of Dental Surgery, which position he held for 27 years.
In 1967, the Dental School was formally affiliated to the Faculty of Medicine, established at Peradeniya. In 1973, it became the Faculty of Dental Medical & Veterinary Sciences. Then with the increase in demand for Dental Surgery, a full fledged Faculty of Dental Sciences was established in October 1986, with Prof K. Bambaradeniya as its first Dean. With the student intake increasing to 75, Prof Bambaradeniya decided to seek funding from Japan, for a ‘state-of-the-art’ facility, which the Japanese govt declined. It was left to the second Dean, Prof A.N.I. Ekanayake to revive the effort with a proposal in 1993. Th basic design was given by the Cabinet of Ministers, after much negotiations between the governments. However, it took 10 years for the dream to be realised, when a modern Faculty of Dental Science Building was constructed in October 18, 1996.
During the tenure of Dr A.W.E. Ranasingha, Prof B.R.R.N. Mendis and Prof N.A. de S. Amaratunge it was decide to establish a ‘Third Country Training Center’. This annual programme trained more than 60 participants from African and Asian counties for 5 years.A Center for Research in Oral Cancer was established in 2014 under the stewardship of the present Dean- Prof W.M. Tillekeratne. The 5-year curriculum was approved by the University Senate and the University Grants Commission. A new building was opened on June 22 by UoP VC Upul B. Disssanayake.
The VC and the Deputy VC are both Dental Surgeons.
- L.B. Senaratne