The Baltimore College of Dental Surgery (BCDS) was chartered by an act of the General Assembly of Maryland (state legislature) in 1840.

Its co-founders, Doctors Horace H. Hayden and Chapin A. Harris have been both inducted in the Pierre Fauchard Academy Hall of Fame.

The College is still in existence today and is part of the University of Maryland, Baltimore as one of its five professional graduate level schools.

At that time there were only about three hundred trained and scientific dentists in the entire country; the rest were relatively untrained operators, outright quacks, or charlatans.

[1][2]Today, the University of Maryland School of Dentistry enjoys one of the most advanced dental education facilities in the world.