Dental History Is Only a Click Away

If you’ve ever wanted to show a patient what dental chairs of old looked like, you can now do so by visiting the University of the Pacific’s Arthur A. Dugoni School of Dentistry’s Virtual Dental Museum. Recently launched, the museum can be found at dentalmuseum.pacific.edu. There, visitors will find exhibits ranging from dental artifacts of different eras, and fanciful Victorian-era dentists’ business cards, to handpieces, dental ads, and, of course, dental chairs.

The Virtual Dental Museum is an extension of the A.W. Ward Museum of Dentistry, which is part of the university’s Institute of Dental History and Craniofacial Study.

Though the museum has been in existence for decades, many of its holdings have not been accessible to the dental school community or general public. The virtual museum was created to change that, opening the collections to the digital world.