Yeshiva University will open its new College of Dental Medicine (YUCDM) in July, launching the first dental school to open in New York City in 110 years. The three-year program, announced in 2024, will open with 150 students in its inaugural class and will award students with a Doctor of Dental Surgery, or D.D.S., degree.
The school will be based at YU’s new Katz School of Science and Health’s campus in Herald Square in Midtown Manhattan. It is expected to also include a dental clinic that will serve hundreds of patients daily while giving students clinical training throughout their education.
“We think there’s room for another couple of dental schools,” founding Dean Edward Farkas told The New York Times. “There was a time in the ’60s when they were closing dental schools. We think of ourselves as replacing some of those schools.”
In 2024, around the same time YUCDM began development, the American Dental Association’s Health Policy Institute reported that many dentists were nearing retirement age. Farkas told The New York Times that the new school was intended, in part, to help meet growing demand in the field.
Before joining YUCDM, Farkas had served as vice dean of Touro’s dental school since before its opening in 2016 and helped lead its establishment and accreditation. Touro fired him in 2024, days before his planned Jan. 1 resignation, and later sued him in federal court, alleging that he had downloaded thousands of files containing trade secrets that could help other universities establish their own dental schools without notifying the university.
The lawsuit was voluntarily dismissed on Oct. 31, 2024.
The YUCDM program will span an accelerated three years rather than the standard four. Dental schools also commonly award a Doctor of Dental Medicine, or D.M.D., degree. According to the American Dental Association, the two degrees are academically identical and carry the same curriculum requirements.
The school, which received accreditation from the Commission on Dental Accreditation, will also include a dental clinic at the same Midtown location. The clinic is expected to serve patients while giving students clinical training throughout their education. The program will place students in clinical settings across specialties including pediatrics, orthodontics and oral surgery.
YU also said the program will include technology such as a 3D printing lab for implant dentistry and digital dentistry simulation training.
The Commentator viewed a copy of the dental school’s catalog and student handbook. Tuition and fees for the coming academic year total $126,500, including $6,500 for health insurance — which can be waived for students who already have coverage.
Indirect expenses, such as food, housing, transportation, books and supplies, are estimated to add an additional $52,020, bringing the total estimated expenses to around $178,000.
“The launch of Yeshiva University’s College of Dental Medicine marks a defining moment for healthcare education in New York City and beyond,” Rabbi Dr. Ari Berman, President of Yeshiva University, told YU News. “By establishing the city’s first new dental school in more than a century, we are advancing a bold vision of clinical excellence, innovation and leadership—educating dentists who will shape the future of their profession with skill, values and a deep sense of responsibility to the communities they serve.”
Photo Caption: Yeshiva University College of Dental Medicine
Photo Credit: Yeshiva University