Dentistry School Asks Washington For $4.6 Million

The School of Dental Medicine has applied for a federal grant of $4.6 million to help finance a proposed $8.5 million building.

The seven-story structure would be three times the size of the present building, which was built in 1909, Roy O. Greep, dean of the Dental School, said last night.

Two-thirds of the school's three-story building, located in Boston near the Medical school, will be demolished and the new building grafted onto the remaining wing.

Greep said that Harvard should know by July if it is to receive the grant. Construction could begin about nine months later and the building could be completed by 1969.

The Dental School submitted its application for aid March I under the Health Professions Educational Act of 1963. A fund drive to raise the remaining $4 million has already been started.

Student enrollment could increase from 60 students to approximately 140 once the new building is finished, according to Greep.

The dental school has been limited to 16 students per class because of a lack of laboratory facilities, which it shares with Med School students. First- and second-year dental students would continue to attend some Med School lectures after their new home is complete, but their laboratories would be separate.

The larger building would allow students to treat three times as many outside patients as they do now, according to James H. Oaks, Director of the Dental Health Service and Associate Dean of the Dental School.

During construction, classes will be held in the Forays the Dental Centre in Boston, a post-doctoral research institute affiliated with the school