Want to become a dentist, dental assistant, dental hygienist, dental nurse, dental technician, or dental therapist? The following schools of dentistry in Missouri offer pre-dental studies, general dentistry, dental assisting, and dental hygiene studies towards a bachelor’s , master’s, doctorate, or a professional degree. Please know that some Missouri dental schools also provide certificates or postgraduate training in general dentistry. Check the following table for street address and official website of each school of dental medicine in the state of Missouri.
| List of Dentistry Colleges in Missouri |
| University of Missouri School of Dentistry Address: Kansas City, MO 64110 Website: http://dentistry.umkc.edu/ |
Missouri Overview
Missouri is located in the Midwest of the United States and belongs to the Northwest Central States. Missouri is bordered by the states of Iowa to the north, Illinois to the east, Kentucky and Tennessee to the southeast, Arkansas to the south, Oklahoma to the southwest, Kansas to the west, and Nebraska to the northwest.
Missouri is located within three United States physiographic regions. The northern part of the state, the so-called “Northern Missouri Plains” is part of the US Interior Plains. These are prairies (steppes) with gentle and low hills, a significant part of which is actively used for agriculture. South of the Missouri River is the Ozark Plateau, part of the US Interior Highlands. The Ozarks are a hilly plateau with numerous rocky outcrops, ravines and caves (Missouri ranks second, after Tennessee, among all US states in terms of the number of caves located on its territory). In southeastern Missouri, the Mississippi River Valley stretches, part of the Atlantic Lowland.. This is a region with very fertile soils, numerous lakes and swamps.
Missouri has a humid continental climate, with fairly cold winters and hot summers. The state, located almost in the middle of the North American continent, is influenced by both cold arctic air masses coming from the north and warm tropical ones brought by winds from the Gulf of Mexico; it is not uncommon for Missouri to experience temperature drops of twenty or more degrees per day.
Missouri got its name from the Missouri River, the largest tributary of the great American Mississippi River. In turn, the river was named after the Indians of the Missouri people, who lived before the arrival of Europeans in the Great Lakes region. The exact meaning of the word “Missouri” is unknown, one of the options is “those who have hollowed out canoes.”
The first Europeans to visit Missouri were Frenchmen Jacques Marquette and Louis Jollier in 1673 during their journey along the Mississippi River. Following them, in 1681-82, the famous pioneer Rene de La Salle descended down the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico, declaring the lands explored by him the property of France and calling them “Louisiana”. In 1723, the French built Fort Orleans on the Missouri River, the first fortified European settlement on the lands of the state, but three years later the fort was abandoned. In 1735, Sainte-Genevieve, the oldest city in the state of Missouri and one of the oldest cities in the United States, was founded. west of the Mississippi River. After the end of the French and Indian War in 1762, Spain gained control of part of Louisiana (including Missouri). A settlement was established in 1764, which grew into the modern city of St. Louis. In the late eighties and early nineties of the XVIII century, the number of American immigrants in Missouri increased sharply, by the beginning of the XIX century, most of the residents of the region were Americans.
Louisiana formally became French again in 1800, and in 1803 the United States bought it from France. Two years later, in 1805, the US Congress decided to create the Territory of Louisiana, with St. Louis as the capital of the new territory. Over the next few decades, St. Louis and Missouri were the starting point, first for explorers of the US West (including the famous expeditions of Lewis and Clark in 1804 and Zebulon Pike in 1806), as well as for most of the westward migrants.
In 1812, after the formation of the state of Louisiana, the territory of the same name received a new name – Missouri. In 1821, American legislators passed what was known as the “Missouri Compromise” decision, according to which two states could be admitted to the union at the same time, in one of which slavery was to be allowed, and in the other – prohibited. On August 10, 1821, Missouri became the twenty-fourth (and “slave”) state of the United States, at the same time as the “free” state of Maine was created.
The state’s largest city, Kansas City, now has about 495,000 people. Missouri’s capital, Jefferson City, has about 45,000 residents. The largest metropolis in the state was formed around St. Louis (more than 2,800,000 people).
The economy of Missouri is very diverse, with a well-developed service sector, industry, agriculture and mining. Missouri’s primary manufacturing industries are transportation engineering, defense, aerospace, light, food, pharmaceutical, and chemical industries. Most of the plants and factories are concentrated in the area of the largest Missouri cities – Kansas City and St. Louis. The state’s most sought-after crops are soybeans, corn, sorghum, cotton, and rice. Also in Missouri, animal husbandry is well developed; cattle (both for meat and dairy) and pigs are grown on farms. The main mineral wealth of the state is lead ores and limestone.