Melbourne Dental School

School of Dentistry
720 Swanston St
Carlton Australia VIC 3053
139-035-5511
dental.unimelb.edu.au

Our Mission: The Mission of the Melbourne Dental School is to be a world-class, research-based school, offering education of the highest quality and to play a leading national and international role with particular relevance to the Asia-Pacific region.

Background: Alastair Sloan is Head of School at the Melbourne Dental School, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences and is Professor of Tissue Engineering and Dental Biology.

Prior to joining the University of Melbourne Alastair was Professor of Tissue Engineering and Bone Biology at the School of Dentistry, Cardiff University, UK where he was Head of School from 2017-2020. Prior to this he was Director of the Cardiff Institute for Tissue Engineering & Repair (CITER) from 2015-2017, a cross-University research network. Alastair is a bioscientist who has been involved in oral/dental education and research for over 20 years.

He obtained his BSc in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Wales in 1993 and his PhD in Oral Biology and Pathology from The University of Birmingham, UK in 1997, where he undertook his PhD in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry. Following postdoctoral research he held a Lectureship in Oral Biology at the School of Dentistry, The University of Birmingham in 2000 before joining Cardiff University in 2005.

Alastair’s research is focussed on the regeneration of mineralised tissues and the behaviour and therapeutic use of dental pulp stem cells. He is interested in the cellular and molecular responses of these cells to biomatrices and compromised biological environments to understand their functional behaviour during tissue injury. Complimentary to this work, his lab is also focussed on bacterial invasion and attachment in mineralised tissue infections and novel drug delivery mechanisms for antimicrobial agents.

He has been awarded over £4.5M in external research funding to date and published over 80 peer reviewed research publications.

Alastair was awarded the IADR Distinguished Scientist Award (Young Investigator) in 2011 in recognition of his research and holds Visiting Professorships at the Airforce Medical University, Xi’an, China, China Medical University, Shenyang, China, University College Cork, Ireland and Cardiff University, UK. He is a Past-President of the Pulp Biology and Regeneration Group of the IADR, Past Chair of the IADR Constitution Committee and currently sits on the Grant Assessment Panel of the NC3Rs (UK) EU Eureka Eurostars panel and Research Foundation Flanders.

In 1884, a group of dentists formed the Odontological Society of Victoria with the aims of the regulation and education of dentists in the state of Victoria. Mr John Illife (1847-1914), a member and later President of the Odontological Society of Victoria, was the driving force in negotiations for the regulation of dentistry in Victoria and the establishment of a hospital and college in Melbourne.

Thanks largely to his efforts, the Melbourne Dental Hospital opened its doors in 1890 and was followed in 1897 by the Australian College of Dentistry devoted solely to the education of dentists.

In 1904, a Faculty of Dental Science was established and the College was affiliated with tthe University of Melbourne. In 1963 the Faculty and the hospital moved from 193 Spring Street to 711 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne.

In 1989, the Faculty of Dentistry merged with the Faculty of Medicine (established 1876) to create a new Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry comprising a School of Medicine and a School of Dental Science respectively. To reflect additional responsibilities, the faculty expanded in 1991 to become the present Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.

The growth and development of the dental school and the need for improved facilities led to the most recent relocation from Elizabeth Street to the current address at 720 Swanston Street. Here the school changed its name from the School of Dental Science to the Melbourne Dental School and with the implementation of the Melbourne Model in 2011, introduced its graduate program leading to the Doctor of Dental Surgery whilst continuing to offer the Bachelor of Oral Health.

In 2012, the Melbourne Oral Health and Training and Education Centre (MOHTEC) at 723 Swanston Street commenced operations. The Centre includes a Preclinical Simulation Laboratory, the Haptic Virtual Reality Simulation Laboratory and the Melbourne Dental Clinic, all representing an exciting new era in dental education at the Melbourne Dental School.

Dental Museum:

The Henry Forman Atkinson Dental Museum is unique in Australia for its age and comprehensiveness and its ability to provide insights into the social history of health, the history and development of the dental profession, and the history and development of dental education in Victoria. It aims to inspire, engage and educate audiences about the changes that have taken place in dentistry from the mid-1800s, when unregulated practice was widespread, through numerous developments to the eventual establishment of the Australian College of Dentistry in 1897 and the emergence of an organized, qualified profession.

Map of Melbourne Dental School School of Dentistry, 720 Swanston St, Carlton Australia VIC 3053

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