A DMD dentist is a dentist who has earned a Doctor of Dental Medicine degree, while a DDS dentist has earned a Doctor of Dental Surgery degree. However, both degrees represent the same education and have the same curriculum requirements set by the Commission on Dental Accreditation. Some universities may grant dental graduates with a DDS, and others grant a DMD, but both degrees have the same requirements. The DDS degree originated at the worlds first dental school, the Baltimore College of Dental Surgery, in 1840, while Harvard Dental School launched the first DMD program in 1867. Dentists are doctors who specialize in oral health, and their responsibilities include diagnosing oral diseases, promoting oral health and disease prevention, creating treatment plans to maintain or restore the oral health of their patients, interpreting x-rays and diagnostic tests, ensuring the safe administration of anesthetics, monitoring growth and development of the teeth and jaws, and performing surgical procedures on the teeth, bone, and soft tissues of the oral cavity.