The Piracicaba School of Dentistry (FOP) at Unicamp inaugurated, this Wednesday (10/12), the Piracicaba Museum of Dentistry, a space open to the public that brings together more than 20 items from the 19th and 20th centuries.
The collection showcases the history of dentistry through dental offices, instruments, microscopes, X-ray equipment, photographs, and advertisements related to the field, as well as reproductions of three dental offices from the decades between 1910 and 1960. In addition to preserving the collection, the museum will offer a new use for the old FOP building, a listed heritage site that was only partially in use.
The rector of Unicamp, Paulo Cesar Montagner, who participated in the ceremony, emphasized the importance of the University leading initiatives to preserve heritage and memory. “This is a historic building. The museum immortalizes the history of dentistry and leaves an important legacy for Piracicaba,” he stated.
Most of the collection was donated to Unicamp in 2022 by the Paulista Association of Dental Surgeons of Piracicaba (APCD-Piracicaba), which had begun preservation work back in the 1960s.
In 1980, the materials became part of a museum that operated for almost 40 years in various locations in Piracicaba. In 2022, after the death of the last director of APCD-Piracicaba, Reinaldo Salvego, and faced with the difficulty of maintaining the collection, the association opted to donate all the items to Unicamp.
The museum's revitalization process began in 2023, with support from the Pro-Rectorate for Extension, Sports and Culture (Proeec), the Unicamp Memory Center (CMU), and FOP.
The general coordinator of Unicamp, Fernando Coelho, participated from the beginning in the discussions about the donation of the collection. At the time, he held the position of pro-rector of Proeec. Coelho recalls that the initial idea was to organize only an exhibition or a memory center for FOP, but the discussions progressed to the creation of the museum, given the importance of the existing material.
"It's important to highlight that this is a dentistry museum linked to one of the best dental schools in the world. In this way, history and academic quality come together in an extremely beautiful space, which then offers alternatives for cultural use," he states.
The director of FOP, Karina Gonzales Silverio, also reinforced the importance of occupying the building as a way of preserving the history of dentistry. “This building tells a great deal about the history of dentistry and dentistry in Piracicaba. The creation of this museum was possible because of the unity and effort of people who love this faculty. Today is a day of great pride and joy,” she said.
Sorting and preserving the collection.
Since the donation of the collection, careful work has been carried out in sorting, conservation, inventory and technical planning.
According to Ana Claudia Cermaria, coordinator of the Cultural Dissemination Service at CMU, during the inventory, items were selected that should remain in the FOP collection and those that would be donated. "We prioritized materials that were related to dentistry, the history of FOP, and teaching in Piracicaba," she says.
According to Cermaria, the interest in preserving materials about education in the city stemmed from the fact that the building had previously housed the Externato São José, a school that provided free education for boys between the 1920s and 1950s.
It was only in 1956 that the Piracicaba City Hall acquired the building with the aim of installing the newly created Faculty of Pharmacy and Dentistry of Piracicaba there, which would later become the Faculty of Dentistry of Piracicaba.
The museum features three long-term exhibitions, as well as a storage area that can be accessed by researchers.
The exhibition “Smile: art, health, society” presents aspects of the history of dentistry focusing on the smile and the act of smiling.
Another exhibition is “Piracicaba Faculty of Dentistry: a history of innovation”, which narrates the trajectory of dental education in Piracicaba, focusing on the importance of FOP-Unicamp.
The exhibition “Dentistry Museum: Communication and Safeguarding” aims to present the museum's history and its importance in the formation of its collections, treatment, and communication of its artifacts. A room is also dedicated to children, offering activities and playful toys for teaching oral health.
All classrooms feature accessibility resources, including QR codes that allow access to content in Brazilian Sign Language (Libras), as well as texts with enlarged font for people with low vision and printed materials in Braille.
The Museum of Dentistry is located at Rua Dom Pedro II, 627, in the center of Piracicaba. Visits can be made from Monday to Friday, from 9 am to 16 pm, with free admission.
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