Open to Health is a drive to support growth at

The University of Texas School of Dentistry at Houston

We're building a new dental school. Establishing new scholarships and endowed professorships. Researching ways to diagnose and treat disease or injuries. And caring for patients who have nowhere else to turn. We need you to make these dreams come true. The challenge is here. The moment is now. Please join us.

In Their Own Words: Fred Garrett, DDS, MS; Kansas native Fred Garrett honors his school teacher parents and all the other educators whose dedication helped make him the successful orthodontist he is today.; Denton A. Cooley, MD; Famed heart surgeon remembers his dentist father, Dr. Ralph Cooley, who was an inventor and national leader in dentistry.; Billy Joe “B.J.” Westbrook, DDS; Dental school in Houston in the 1950s "was a miserable existence," says this Class of '54 alumnus, but dentistry has made amazing things possible.

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News

Dean John Valenza, DDS, with (clockwise) current orthodontic Department Chair Dr. Jeryl English, and program graduates and the The Orthodontic Foundation leaders Dr. Bonham Magness, Dr. Michael Mizzell,
Dr. Sam Winkelman

New endowed professorship in Orthodontics honors Dr. West

Gifts totaling just over $100,000 have established the Daniel C. West, DDS, Endowed Professorship in Orthodontics in memory of the former chair of the UT School of Dentistry Department of Orthodontics.

The donors include The Orthodontic Foundation and West's friends, colleagues and former students. During his tenure as chair, 181 residents earned their orthodontic degrees.

"We need to realize the part [dental school] has played in our lives and give back so it can be a better place in the future. It takes heart and money to make things happen."

Elizabeth Hunsaker, DDS '85, general dentist, Houston and Open to Health volunteer.

About Open to Health

See a video that explains where we are, why we're doing this, and ways you can help.

The new dental school building, seen here in March 2012, will be ready for occupancy in May.

Endowments 101

When it comes to endowments, what's the difference between a "chair" and a "professorship?" Who can hold them and what do they do? Learn what these terms mean to The University of Texas.