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Fun facts about the faculty: Aarhus School of Dentistry

Aarhus School of Dentistry is one of the university buildings that has just been recommended for conservation. In that connection, here are three fun facts about life inside the conserved walls that might – er, sorry – make your jaw drop. Did you know that …

Inauguration of the School of Dentistry in 1961, where Rector P. A. Knudsen (centre) is sporting the famous gold chain, and King Frederik IX is sporting a cigarette. Poul Henningsen also specially designed the lamp above the dentist’s chair. The newspaper photo was found by Lone Nyhuus.
Professor of Orthodontics that way <-- --> Auditorium IV that way. Here, the first graduate from the Aarhus School of Dentistry, Peter Bundgaard (left), is congratulated on passing his examination by Professor of Maxillofacial Surgery Mogens Glahn in 1962. Photo: Archive
The brand-new School of Dentistry was completed in 1961. Before C.F. Møller began building with his yellow bricks, and long before the buildings were subject to a conservation order, the large entertainment establishment ‘Vennelyst’, with restaurants, theatre, and fireworks, was located right here in Vennelystparken. Photo: Archive
  • ... the deputy head of the Department of Technology was almost killed by an angry dentistry student in the 1960s? Deputy department head Charles Gotfredsen worked in his practice every day between 8:00 and 9:45, so that he could be at Aarhus School of Dentistry by 10:00 am. He always went up the stairs in the Høegh-Guldbergsgade wing, often smoking a cheroot cigar, and was by all accounts a highly principled and rather stubborn gentleman. One fine morning, when he reached the Department of Technical Services, he heard the hissing sound of gas. It turned out that a dentistry student who was angry at Gotfredsen had opened 20 gas taps in a technical room and lit a gas flame in a room on the opposite side of the corridor. Gotfredsen was able to turn off all of the gas taps and avert the disaster, and by a real stroke of luck, he did not have a cheroot in his mouth on that particular day. It turned out that the student was in fact only studying dentistry because his mother wanted him to. He was advised to seek psychiatric treatment.
  • ... students have drilled 14,000 holes in patients’ teeth over the past five years? If a patient does not turn up for an appointment, there is a fake head in the drawer next to the dentist’s chair, so that the student can still practise the planned treatment. The teeth in the fake head are either 3D-printed or else real teeth that students have extracted or removed from other patients. Dentists from all over the country also send teeth – everything from incisors to wisdom teeth – to the department, so that there are real teeth to work on, even if they are outside the mouth.
  • ... in 2018, gold rector’s chain of office was found in a bank box under Stjernepladsen? The gold chain had been donated to the School of Dentistry by Jutlandish dentists in 1958, but since the start of the 90s, it had been put away and forgotten. The chain is made up of emblems on which the names of the various rectors are engraved, and at the bottom of the chain hangs a medal with a relief of the patron saint of dentistry, St. Apollonia. Rumour has it – and it is only a rumour – that the gold in the chain came from melted-down, extracted gold teeth. Today, the chain is worn by Head of Department Siri Beier Jensen on special occasions, but only when Rector Brian Bech Nielsen is not wearing his own chain – there is only room for one rector chain in the city.
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Revised 01.10.2024