Michigan Dental Association

The Michigan Dental Association was organized on January 8, 1856, by fourteen dentists who met in Detroit at the office of Hiram Benedict and Lorain Christopher Whiting. According to the American Dental Association, it was the first state dental society in the country. At this meeting the dentists established bylaws and membership qualifications. “One must be twenty-one, a practicing member of the profession, possess `a good English education,’ and have unexceptionable moral character.” In the 1860s and 1870s the association advocated a dental school in the state. At this time few dentists received formal training. In 1875, after almost twenty years of effort, the state legislature appropriated money to establish a dental school at the University of Michigan.