The present building of Centre for Dental Education and Research (CDER) is a continuation of erstwhile Department of Dental Surgery established in 1960 with single dental surgeon. The department saw significant progress from non-teaching to teaching and subsequently starting Post-graduation in Orthodontics and Dentofacial Orthopedics in 1984, Maxillofacial Prosthodontics in 1995, Conservative Dentistry and Endodontics in 2003 and Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in 2005. The Governing Body of the Institute approved in principle establishment of post graduate dental specialty centre in 1999 and the foundation stone for this building was laid in May 2003. As on now this centre is one of the outstanding specialized centres of AIIMS and carries on the tradition of providing excellent patient care, post graduate education and research. The fifth specialty Pediatric and Preventive Dentistry post graduate courses started in year 2017 and it is envisaged to start post-graduation in several other subjects, PhD and fellowships in other branches of dentistry. 

The CDER has been actively providing policy and program support to the Govt by advising and participating in various technical and scientific work of Govt of India. The erstwhile Department of Dental Surgery was named as nodal agency for implementation of pilot project on National Oral Health Care Program in the country in year 1999. Subsequently, the Centre developed the implementation strategies for National Oral Health Care Program and developed several demonstration programs and guidelines for oral disease prevention. The Centre also developed several IEC materials, manuals, educative film on Oral health and chapters for NCERT books on oral health awareness and disease prevention. The Centre also conducted several training programmes for dental surgeons, health workers, nurses, school teachers and NGOs on primary prevention of oral diseases and effective tobacco cessation counselling. The Centre has been involved in several projects of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Indian Council for Medical Research, Department of Science & Technology, Department of Biotechnology, CSIR and WHO.  The Centre provides essential treatment at AIIMS outreach centres at Mid-town Rotary Hospital at Trilokpuri, and CRHSP, Ballabhgarh.  The Centre was the Nodal agency for National Oral Health Care Programme (1999-2005). 

The Centre was given the status of National Centre of Excellence for Implementation of National Oral Health Program in February 2014 and WHO CC for Oral Health Promotion in May 2014. The faculty from the Centre have been instrumental in development of operational guidelines for National Oral Health Program, Regional Oral Health Strategy, Draft National Oral Health Policy and guidelines for dental screening under Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK).

As part of National Oral Health Program, CDER has also developed a web portal and app named EDantSeva for use as informative and educative electronic resource for public on oral health issues as well as data for dental. Professionals.

The faculty from the Centre is providing leadership role in various technical and professional organizations at key positions and are publishing a significant number of scientific articles in journals of repute.