It was founded in 1881 and is the oldest dental school in California and the western United States.

[2] In 2016, it had received the highest NIH funding of any US dental school for 25 consecutive years.

[7] In 1892 it moved to downtown San Francisco, in Donohoe Building on the corner of Market and Taylor, and in 1900 it moved to the campus on Mount Sutro, nowadays the UCSF Parnassus campus.

[10] The internal organization of the institution was changed in 2005, creating the departments of Orofacial Sciences, Cell and Tissue Biology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Preventive and Restorative Dental Sciences.

[11] The School offers Doctor of Dental Surgery (DDS), PhD and MS degrees in oral and craniofacial sciences, and combined DDS-PhD and PhD-dental specialty training programs.