Welcome from the Dean
On behalf of the Southern Illinois University School of Dental Medicine, I would like to invite you to explore all that we have to offer here! We provide an outstanding dental education for our students; excellent clinical opportunities for our residents; and top quality dental care for our patients. I am truly honored to serve this caring, compassionate and inclusive School as the Dean.By way of introduction, I began serving as Dean of the School in January 2023. I started working at SIU SDM as a Professor and Associate Dean in 2019. I worked closely with Dr. Bruce Rotter, Dean Emeritus at SIU SDM, during my first year here to help the School complete a successful reaccreditation. Shortly thereafter, along with the rest of the administration and faculty at the School, I helped us continue the delivery of our educational instruction and patient care through the pandemic. So it has been an eventful several years.
Now as Dean, I am tremendously excited by the opportunity we have at the School to continue to grow and positively impact the profession. We recently opened our state-of-the-art Advanced Care Clinic, including a Surgical Suite, where we can now provide care for patients who require general anesthesia for the completion of care. We are also excited about our new Graduate Endodontics and Graduate Orthodontics programs.
Meanwhile, we continue to provide one of the best D.M.D. programs in the country. Our students consistently perform remarkably well on both their clinical and written Board exams. Both the general practitioners and graduate programs who receive our new graduates often share with us how advanced and prepared they are upon entering the profession.
Nonetheless, there is still much more to come! We encourage you to stay connected. Whether you are a prospective or current student; a member of the faculty or staff; an alumnus or friend of the dental school, we welcome you to play an active role in helping us continue to fulfill all the promise and potential we have here at the SIU School of Dental Medicine.
Sincerely,
Saulius E. Drukteinis, D.M.D., M.S., Ph.D.
Professor and Dean
