[1] Delta Sigma Delta's inception came when Lou Mitchell and Chas Howard, both dental students at the University of Michigan School of Dentistry in Ann Arbor, were invited to join the medical fraternity Nu Sigma Nu.

[2] They declined, instead opting to form the school's first professional dental fraternity.

[2] On November 15, 1882, these two and five others from the dental school met at "Mrs. Slattery's boarding house", located at #10 North State St., Ann Arbor, Michigan, and there established what they soon realized was to be the first dental fraternity in the world.

This led to the formation of a Supreme (or Alumni) chapter, which was founded in Detroit, Michigan in 1895.

Undergraduate or collegiate chapters are located at dental schools, while graduate chapters are located in population centers throughout the United States and in Canada, Europe, Australia, and New Zealand.