The Dean of the Faculty of Dental Medicine, Prof. Dorota Olczak-Kowalczyk, welcomed those gathered in the Prof. Janusz Piekarczyk Aula of the Didactic Centre of the MUW and those participating in the celebrations online.
The meeting was honored by the presence of HM Rector of the MUW, Prof. Zbigniew Gaciong, the Vice-Rectors: Prof. Marek Kuch, Prof. Agnieszka Cudnoch-Jędrzejewska, Prof. Piotr Pruszczyk, Prof. Wojciech Lisik, and Prof. Paweł Włodarski. Prof. Dorota Olczak-Kowalczyk also welcomed the representatives of the respective faculties: Deputy Dean for Curriculum and Quality of teaching of the Faculty of Medicine Prof. Aneta Nitsch-Osuch, Dean of the Pharmacy Department Joanna Kolmas, PharmD, PhD, Dean of the Faculty of Health Sciences Mariusz Gujski, MD, PhD, and Dean of the Faculty of Medical Sciences Associate Prof. Dariusz Białoszewski, MD, PhD, Professor of the MUW, as well as the chancellor's authorities: Wojciech Orł and Mariusz Antoniak.
Among the invited guests were: Mazovia province governor Konstanty Radziwiłł, MD, PhD, Małgorzata Zadorożna, Director of the Department of Medical Qualifications and Science at the Ministry of Health, Filip Nowak, President of the National Health Fund, Anna Łukasik, Director of the UCC MUW, Justyna Mieszalska, President of Medical Center MUW, Łukasz Jankowski, MD, Chairman of the Regional Medical Chamber, Dariusz Paluszek, MD, PhD, Vice Chairman of the Regional Medical Chamber, prof. Jerzy Jurkiewicz, President of the Warsaw Medical Society, rectors and vice-rectors of the Medical University of Warsaw of previous terms: Prof. Tadeusz Tołłoczko, Prof. Andrzej Górski, Prof. Marek Krawczyk, Prof. Mirosław Wielgoś, Prof. Andrzej Członkowski, Prof. Renata Górska and Prof. Marek Kulus, as well as prof. Hubert Wanyura, Prof. Andrzej Kukwa and Prof. Lidia Chomicz, and also the editor-in-chief of the MUW journal "Medicine Didactics Education" Prof. Dagmara Mirowska-Guzel and Adam Tyszkiewicz, PhD, Director of the Museum of the History of Medicine MUW.
The ceremony was held under the honorary patronage of the Rector of the Medical University of Warsaw, Prof. Zbigniew Gaciong, who paid tribute to the entire community of the Faculty of Dental Medicine. The Rector presented a letter of thanks to the Dean Professor Dorota Olczak-Kowalczyk for the development of the Faculty of Dental Medicine and all the institutions that preceded its establishment in 2012, since when it has existed as a separate unit of the MUW. The Rector outlined the history of teaching academic dentistry from 1920, the time of the establishment of the National Dental Institute, to the present day. He emphasized that its development would not have been possible without the commitment, effort and perseverance of many great personalities of Polish dentistry, without a great dedication to the development of dentistry and education of the next generations of dentists as well as dental hygiene and dental technology graduates.
“Although more than a century has passed, the tasks posed to the academic dental center, a hundred years ago to the National Dental Institute and today to the Faculty of Dental Medicine of our University, have not changed. In 1920 the task of the Institute, as defined in the first paragraph of the Statute, was the theoretical and practical education of specialists in the medical and dental profession. This provision is valid for today's Faculty of Dental Medicine.
However, the educational level of candidates for students has changed. In 1920, of the 682 students enrolled in the first year, only 28 with a high school diploma entered the studies with a regular student status. During the last recruitment process at the Faculty of Dental Medicine, 182 students commenced the studies, all of them with a high school diploma passed with very good results.
There are currently 691 students in the Department, including 44 in the English Dentistry Division, which was established in 2012. Last year 154 people graduated. Faculty graduates pass the Medical and Dental Final Examination the best in the country. The first place of our graduates during the spring session of LDEK is the best objective criterion illustrating the high quality of education at our Faculty” - said Rector Professor Zbigniew Gaciong and added that “although the official names of the universities in which dentists were educated changed - from the National Dental Institute, through the Academy of Dentistry, Dental Department of the Faculty of Medicine and the First Faculty of Medicine, up to the independent Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, which as a result of the requirements of the law was renamed in 2019 to the Faculty of Dental Medicine - one thing has remained the same: the extraordinary people who created and continue to develop Warsaw Academic Dentistry.”
Rector Professor Zbigniew Gaciong awarded Dr. Tytus Chałubiński medals. It is an expression of gratitude of the academic community of our University for the significant contribution of the honored persons to the clinical, scientific and didactic development of the academic dentistry in Warsaw, as well as the entire Medical University of Warsaw. The medals were awarded to Prof. Hubert Wanyura - Deputy Dean for the Division of Dentistry First Faculty of Medicine (1999-2005), Prof. Renata Gorska - Director of the Institute of Dentistry (2002-2005), Deputy Dean for the Division of Dentistry First Faculty of Medicine (2005-2012) and Prof. Elżbieta Mierzwińska-Nastalska - Director of the Institute of Dentistry (2009-2012), Deputy Dean for the Division of Dentistry First Faculty of Medicine, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry and the Faculty of Dental Medicine (2012-2020). The medals were also awarded to Prof. Leszek Kryst - Director of the Institute of Dentistry (1973-1981), Deputy Dean for the Division of Dentistry First Faculty of Medicine (1972-1975), Prof. Janusz Komender - Deputy Dean for the Division of Dentistry First Faculty of Medicine (1975-1981) and Prof. Maria Szpringer-Nodzak - Deputy Director of the Institute of Dentistry (1993-1994), and later Director of the Institute of Dentistry (1994-1999).
In his speech, Mazovia province governor Konstanty Radziwiłł - a graduate of the Medical Academy in Warsaw - noted that the various stages of teaching dentistry is a history, which is still being created by, among others, the participants of this ceremony. The achievements of the Medical University of Warsaw are undoubtedly great - it is one of the leading institutions in terms of education and didactics. Konstanty Radziwiłł thanked for the fact that this is one of the best places for education, not only in Poland, but also in Europe, and that the graduates of the Faculty of Dental Medicine are valued specialists. He also noted the contribution of Polish dentists in changing the perception of this field and consolidating it as part of medicine.
The President of the Warsaw Medical Society Prof. Jerzy Jurkiewicz also gave a speech. He thanked all the dentists and congratulated on the jubilee. Prof. Jerzy Jurkiewicz, on behalf of the Dean of the Faculty of Dental Medicine, Prof. Dorota Olczak-Kowalczyk, expressed his thanks and gratitude for the work of the dentists. Then the Deputy Dean of the Faculty of Dental Medicine, Prof. Agnieszka Mielczarek, read a congratulatory letter sent by the Minister of Education and Science, Przemyslaw Czarnek.
Congratulatory letters were also sent by the Director of the Department of Medical Qualifications and Science at the Ministry of Health, Małgorzata Zadorożna, and the President of the Polish Dental Association, Professor Marzena Dominiak.
The Chair of the Anniversary Organizing Committee, Professor Elżbieta Mierzwińska-Nastalska, made a presentation entitled "One hundred years of the history of academic dentistry teaching in Warsaw". The Rector of the Medical Academy in the years 1996-1999, Prof. Andrzej Górski, shared his memories of his father, Prof. Marian Górski, who had great merits in the development of maxillofacial and dental surgery. One of the highlights of this part of the ceremony was the handing over the original foundation act of the building of the Academy of Dentistry, dated July 4, 1939, found in the so-called "time capsule" to the Museum of the History of Medicine of the MUW by Janusz Zawadziński, PhD, an enthusiast of the history of medicine and dentistry.
In the further part of the ceremony lectures were given by: Anna Wójcicka, MD, PhD, from Warsaw Genomics Sp. z o.o and the Oncology Clinic of the Military Medical Institute in Warsaw - "What is hidden in our genes?"; Prof. Beata Kawala from the Department of Maxillofacial Orthopaedics and Orthodontics, Wrocław Medical University - "Time in orthodontics - when too late is still too early" and Janusz Szulik from the INTER Polska Insurance Company - "Civil liability of the dentist".
