History
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The trustees were dealing with the same bleak economic conditions that were confronting private universities across the country. Dental education had become enormously expensive, and there were too many dentists (a surplus that proved to be temporary). One by one, private universities were ceding the field to the growing number of state-supported schools of dentistry The SLU trustees decided in 1967 to close the school, which had a four-year enrollment of 350. When the last Doctor of Dental Sciences degrees were con ferred in 1971, a program that had begun in 1894 at Marion Sims College of Medicine and was taken over by Saint Louis University in 1903 came to an end.

Led by Marshall, the orthodontics chairman whose watchword was "results:" alumni of the department pledged financial and other support.They persuaded University admninistrators and trustees that the graduate program could pay its own way and should be continued. Consequently, when the dental school shut its doors, graduate work in orthodontics moved forward, funded by expanded clinical services and alumni contributions.
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Reaching Out In Research. By 1976, when Dr. Lysle Johnston succeeded Marshall, the educational program and the clinical work were on such a sound footing that research could be expanded.There was already a strong tradition of sophisticated basic inquiry. Faculty members and graduate students routinely collaborated with experts in disciplines across the University - in anatomy, biology, engineering, genetics, physiology, and radiology. Their findings were applied widely - to cleft palate correction, tooth alignment, risk assessment, and devising new treatment strategies.
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By the early 1990s, it was evident that the alumni had done far more than keep their pledge to sustain graduate stud ies in orthodontics. In a commemorative brochure, the faculty declared that the SLU Graduate Program in Orthodontics "is one of the oldest, arguably the best, and certainly the largest such program in the world. It is the consistent winner of more research awards than any other graduate program. Because of its attributes, admission to the program is highly competitive." In anticipation of new programs in other specialties, there was a name change in 1994, to the Center for Advanced Dental Education. Expansion into other fields required the kind of determination and innovation that had been essential to ensure survival of the orthodontics program.
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Dr. Peter Sotiropoulos, who had succeeded Johnston in 1991, pointed out at the time that although the need to add specialties was clear, there were major obstacles. "With more emphasis on saving teeth and an increasing number of older patients," he said, "we have a serious shortage of specialists trained in complex restorative procedures. And because money to expand educational programs is hard to come by, it's difficult for the nation's dental schools to deal with the problem."

Two Universities Collaborate. The Center for Advanced Dental Education overcame the obstacles through an arrangement to offer graduate courses jointly with Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine in Alton, 25 miles north of St. Louis. In a relationship unusual amoung universities, new programs leading to Saint Louis University degrees would be offered by the faculties of both institutions. Academic courses and clinical work would take place on both campuses.
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The first joint offering, in 1994, was a master's program in endodontics, the branch of dentistry that deals with diseases of the tooth pulp and related conditions, In 1996, a program was added in periodontics, the specialty in diseases of the gums and tissues supporting the teeth.

In the mid-1990s, administrators began looking for a new home for the center. They needed to relieve overcrowding, to accommodate the future programs in other specialties, to provide more room for research, and to house electronic equipment for distance education, so that courses and continuing education series could be offered to students and practicing specialists a few miles or hundreds of miles from St. Louis. The new home was made by adapting and adding to a well-built commercial building, originally constructed as a wood planing mill. Its administrative offices, finished with beautifully milled fine woods, have been retained. The 27,500 square-foot building, on what is now on the eastern end of the Health Sciences Campus, was expanded to 47,200 square feet.