Not to bash Penn, but the facilities are significantly inferior to those at UCSF (I went to interviews at both). The views from the preclinical lab and the main clinic at UCSF are simply amazing! At Penn, you're in the basement.
Now, as for "prestige" it really depends on what you want to do. If you're going to be a GP or a specialist and that's all, NO ONE will ever care which school you go to. Every dentist I've talked to said they dont really know much about Upenn but knew of other schools on the east coast which are not ivyies (like UMD). Patients care way more about sillier things like how nice your office looks and (more importantly) what other patients have said about you. Keep in mind that dentists get more than half of their new patients by word of mouth and only about 20% from advertising (which is the only time where you would "flaunt" your ivy degree), so in the end it's very insignificant.
If you're planning to go into research, or more importanlty, academia, then Ivy is the way to go as it does open those doors for you.
If ivy's really had the equivalent prestige in dentistry that they have in other areas, this would be reflected through their facilities being modern, high tech and prestigious-looking (i.e compare Harvard school of medecine vs. Harvard dental school or Upenn Wharton School vs. Upenn Dental). Of course, that's not to say their education is bad, as they have a lot of excellent faculty and they do teach you well but that the ivy "name" does not add anything EXTRA to your dental experience or to your future as a practioner.
