Otago University Faculty of Dentistry Dean Prof Greg Seymour yesterday said the project, which could be completed by 2016, would replace the existing facility.
It no longer met the "requirements of dentistry of the 21st century".
The plan was to build a new clinical facility in the car park of the present dental school in Great King St. Once that facility was built, the old building, which would be used for research and lectures, would be refurbished.
Prof Seymour said he was "90%" sure the project would be completed, but could not be absolutely sure until the vice-chancellor and university council signed it off.
The university is evaluating tenders for the role of lead architectural firm for the project.
The project was estimated to cost between $50 million and $100 million, Prof Seymour said.
A more accurate figure would be available once the chosen architectural firm had produced a design and quantity surveyors had looked at it.
It was too early to say exactly when the project would be completed, but the second half of 2016 was a "realistic" expectation, he said.
"I would hope that the clinical building would ... be finished by the middle of 2015. That would then allow the refurbishment of the existing building to occur and that would probably take 12 or 15 months."
Construction could start at the beginning of 2014, depending on how long the design and approval process took.
Prof Seymour said it was "about time" the existing facility - which was designed in the 1950s and opened in 1961 - was updated.
Staff were "very excited" about the prospect of working in a new facility.
A new building would allow the replacement of "antiquated" equipment with modern technology, including digitising patients' records, digital X-rays and installing internet connections to dental chairs.
This would "dramatically" boost the quality of education for students. It would also improve dentistry in New Zealand as a whole because it was the country's only dental school.
The project would be the "largest and most costly" investment in the University of Otago's dental school.
It would also provide a better fit for the 500 students now enrolled in dentistry, with the existing building having been designed for only about half that number.
The dental school was founded in 1907 and originally housed on campus in what is now the university staff club.
In 1926, after the original building became overcrowded, the school moved into a new facility in Great King St - next to the existing facility - in what is now the department of zoology.
The existing facility, which is a New Zealand Historic Places Trust category 1 historic building, was opened in 1961.
A spokeswoman for the university said it was too early for the university's property services, which is leading the project, to comment.
