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The Museum

The establishment of a Museum of Dentistry at the Dental School of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens has been a constant request for many years. The first step was made in 2012, thanks to the initiative of the President of the Dental School of Athens Professor Georgios Vougiouklakis who organised a research team. The aim was the creation of an organization that would manage the reception, storage, maintenance, recording, documentation, research, interpretation and, in most important of all, the exhibition and the promotion of Dentistry and the dental Profession to the public view, from ancient times until today.

Museum collections and exhibits

The main exhibition area of the Museum is located on the first floor of the new building of the Dental School in Goudi. The two halls house a remarkable collection, which includes a significant number of exhibits. The Museum's objects are exposed both in the main area of the Museum and in special display cases in order to meet the demands of modern museological exhibition and Museum function spaces.
The collection, on the first floor exhibition area in the new building, consists of scientific dental instruments dating back to the beginning of the previous century. Examples are surgical instruments such as dental forceps and levers. There are also operative dentistry devices like amalgam dispensers, dental drills and various types of dental headpieces. The first air driven contra-angle hand piece unit that was used at the operative dentistry Department is exhibited there. Moreover, tools and devices of prosthetic dentistry are displayed as porcelain teeth, impression trays, a vulcanizing device for the manufacturing of dentures and others. A rare dental unit with an even most rare dental office light is part of the museum collection of dental units..
One of the most striking exhibits is the portable wooden cabinet with materials and tools for exercising the dental art, which inter alia contains a significant number of glass vials with pharmaceutical preparations for dental use, a great collection of hand tools for placing materials, endodontics tools, needles, syringes, intact local anesthetic vials, etc.
We are deeply convinced that a very important part of the history of dentistry is the story of the people who tried to explore, understand and apply the principles of dentistry. A dialectic relationship between yesterday and today can be achieved by Museum exhibition islets where the exhibits are in plain sight for both students and patients on a daily basis. For this purpose, old dental units, dental appliances and tools were selected and are displayed in properly designed areas of the dental school building complex.

The Dental School's Historical Archive

The Dental Department Museum incorporates the historical archive of Athens Dental School and supports the research of the archive. The rare archival footage tracks the evolution of the “Οδοντοϊατρικόν Σχολεῖον” (Dental School) from the very early steps of establishment in 1916 until the early 1980s.
The documents illustrate the way in which the first University Dental educational institution was formed, as well as the changes over the years. In that way, the critical historical period, during which the earlier west dentistry constituted in Greece, is revealed. At the same time, unknown aspects of Athens University academic activity are illuminated.