Vision & Mission

The Department of Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopaedics abides to the University's overall mission to generate, disseminate, and preserve knowledge, and to serve the community.

Our department accomplishes the mission embracing the academic values of the university as well as the ethical responsibilities implicit in the education of future members of a dental health care profession.

Our department is focused to improve the oral health of the community through teaching, service and research.

Through service, the department strives to improve the public's health through outreach programs with attention to minority and underserved communities. The department values diversity in its students, staff, faculty, and patients. It seeks to foster an environment of mutual respect with objectivity, imaginative inquiry through lifelong learning, and the free exchange of ideas.

The department's clinical goal is to prepare a new generation of clinicians to deliver oral health care with skill and compassion.

The department's research programs contribute to understanding biological, behavioral, social, biomedical, and clinical aspects of orofacial health that expands the boundaries of our knowledge and builds on discoveries to enhance human life.