All Dental students must return to campus by August. Some may return earlier to see patients.

The School of Dental Medicine is planning for a possible return to clinical operations in late May for current third and fourth-year students, while incoming first and second-year Dental School students must return to campus by Aug. 17.

Current first and second-year students will complete the remainder of this semester remotely, according to an email from the Dental School Office of the Dean to the Dental School community on April 17. When classes resume in the fall, the Dental School anticipates a combination of virtual and in-person learning with staggered clinical schedules, the email read. 

The Dental School academic year typically runs from late August to late June for first and second-year students, while third and fourth-year students also work in Penn Dental clinics throughout the summer to gain first-hand experience interacting with and treating patients.

Current first-years must return to campus one week earlier than what was originally anticipated in order to fit in postponed lab sessions from this spring, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Faizan Alawi wrote in an email to Dental School first-years on April 23.

Third and fourth-year students, as well as postdoctoral residents, will return to clinics in limited numbers following a strict schedule to control the number of people in each building at any one time, the email read. Clinic start times and lunch hours will be staggered, the email added. 

In preparation for the return to clinical operations, the Dental School is acquiring personal protective equipment and developing processes to ensure social distancing in clinics, common spaces, elevators, and courtyards, the Office of the Dean wrote. Everyone entering the school will have their temperature taken before entering and be required to wear a mask, according to the email.

"The timing for when we begin to open operations at the School will depend upon input from a variety of sources," the Office of the Dean wrote. "This includes University's leadership, the Pennsylvania Department of Health, CDC recommendations and guidelines, etc. Nonetheless, we are beginning to plan for a possible return to clinical operations in late May."

Current first-years will finish the remainder of the Freshman Operative Dentistry Laboratory course in fall 2020 and DENT 516 Biological Systems IV in spring 2021, according to Alawi's email. In order to accommodate these changes, Alawi wrote that first-years will complete some second-year didactic learning courses this year.

Penn President Amy Gutmann wrote in an email to undergraduate students on April 27 that the University is planning for a combination of in-class and virtual learning for fall 2020, although no decision has been made yet.