Chicago College of Dental Surgery - Dentos Yearbook (Chicago, IL)

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Harry Sicher, MD, DSC, came to Loyola in 1944, a neatly dressed 50 year old with flawless English and a lilting Viennese accent. His reputation as world renowned anatomist preceded him, he had in 1928 coauthored the standard Oral Anatomy text with Julius Tandler, and it wasn't until 1949 that the German text was translated into the English version we all have in our libraries. Harry was a teacher. Mature, polished, and experienced, he rarely used notes. He only liked to talk about what he knew well, and was not embarrassed when asked a question to answer I don't know. He never bluffed. But Harry knew a lot about anatomy. He would lecture and captivate students. He told jokes and frequent wise sayings: The greater the ignorance, the greater the arrogance. Try to see yourself, not as others see you, but as you see others. Many a stunted person lives by conceit and vanity, they need the protection of arrogance and the manure of flatteryf' Love is eternal, but it's object changes. If you were to ask Sicher what was on his mind, it would always be anatomy. A frustration of his was that conventions and study groups would ask him to lecture on the same subject year after year, especially about the TMJ. But people felt secure that if Sicher said so, it was true. At one convention, a discussion broke out and turned to Sicher's text on anatomy to resolve it. Finally Sicher stood up and said with disgust, lf you want to misquote me, at least misquote me correctly. He also hated the way practicing dentists always referred to the articulator to describe movement of the TMJ. They can't separate biology from mechanics! he would complain. But don't take Sicher for having anti-dental sentiment. He had high regard for s ome dentists. In fact, in Vienna, he taught anatomy to MD's who were pursuing dentistry as a specialty. Perhaps Harry's interest in oral anatomy began as a child. When he was quite small, he was sent to the long-bearded ENT for the nasty formality of having his tonsils removed. He sat on the doctor's lap, and the doctor, without anesthetic, took an instrument like a guillotine and with a quick snap removed the tonsillar tissue from one side of the oropharynx. The child yelped, ripped a fistful of hair from the doctor's beard, and bleeding, ran and hid under the table. llt's not known if the other tonsil was ever removed.j Sicher wasn't just an anatomist. He knew and loved music. and closed his office at noon to skip lunch and practice his violin. He was in charge of a local string quartet which would play concerts delighting audiences. But Sicher's music was not the limit of his interests. He understood ancient Greek and spoke lfluentlyj modern Greek, English, German, French, and Spanish, and he could understand Italian quite well. He was fascinated by biology and once confided that he just had to stay up all night to finish a book: Morgan's text on genetics. So gifted in many areas. Sicher could keep them all in compartments: to take out one or the other when he needed to and then put it back. All his interests had boundaries so he could enjoy them all. But there were things that Sicher had no time for. Math was boring to him and he never claimed any knowledge if he didn't feel competent to answer. Yet his flawless memory for detail never left him in areas of his strength. 14 X I Some of Sicher's most interesting past was during WWI when he was a medical officer in Montenegro. Once, he was half way to a medical call lon horsebackj when suddenly a military frail began around him. He couldn't decide whether to turn back or keep going. Finally, he decided, Since I started in this direction, l'll continue in it. Harry ended his military career by developing an infected finger which became a septicemia, plunging him into coma. He was sent home to Vienna to die, but he pulled through with a scarred finger, and scarred heart valves from bacterial endocarditis. Harry loved stories of mind over matter. Once he reported that a woman patient presented for extraction of a tooth, and since all extractions were done then under general anesthetic, Dr. Sicher explained to her that a mask would be placed over her nose and mouth, a few drops of anesthetic solution would be applied to the mask and then she would breathe deeply and sleep, feeling no pain. The mask was placed, but, surprisingly, before anesthetic was applied, the woman breathed deeply and feel into deep sleep. The tooth was extracted without anesthetic or pain. Harry was a teacher. He told other teachers this story. A military man retired and was walking home through the countryside, when he came upon an old barn, so he went inside. On one wall was a carefully drawn buIl's eye, but the man was distracted by other things in the barn. He pulled out his pistol and was shooting this way and that when a farmer stepped into the barn. lf you want to shoot, here's how to do it, said the farmer. Aim at the center of the buIl's eye. So, said Sicher, lf you want to teach, forget about all the surrounding material, aim to teach what is important and nothing else. Aim to hit the bull's eye.

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.. has it changed in 50 years It is the purpose of the 1983 Denticle to present the still deplorable conditions in the clinic and offer perverted solutions to the problem which no one will ever read. The first problem is the long line of students following popular instructors. There is always one in line who says, Do you mind? I only need a signature! and after writhing his way to the front of the line he takes the instructor for a 5 month vacation to D.A.U. lD.A.U. is located in the far north of the building somewhere between Nome, Alaska and the Yukon Territoryj. Therefore to turn chaos into order, recommend that the U.S. National Guard Drill Commands be used, with modifications. Atten-SHUNl - each student leans in the direction of the instructor and acts interested. At Easel - This is the signal that it is all right to blow nose, cough, return zipper to proper position, etc., while instructor takes time out to telephone the price of gold in London. Dress RIGHT Dress! - This is the signal from instructors that appearance is sloppy. In operative it means get your hands out of your pockets . In diagnosis it means button your coat . In endo it means Sergio Valente is in. 'Fire - This term is not to be used in the clinic. Instead the P.A. system will use tactful hints like: Mr. Red, Mr. Smoke, Mr. Cremation, Mr. inferno or Mr. Gethehellou- tahere. fAs usuall any fire alarm bell should be ignored. FonNard, Harsh, Up, two three, fo - Students follow in orderly procession. Butters-in-line will receive capital punishment: 10 days in asepsis. This will restore order to the clinic, but it does nothing for the embarrassment a student suffers as he has to cross into his patients line of vision several hundred times as the instructor zig-zags down the row. We suggest the use of both the rubber dam holder and the Visiframe while working in operative. The Visiframe can be applied upside down, pulling the upper half of the dam as high as the forehead. Microfilm of this week's National Enquirer can be stapled to the dam in front of the eyes. We recognize respiration may be a problem with the rubber dam impishly turning up the end of the nose, but a cotton roll in each nostril will take care of that. Each student should also be required to spend 1 hour each day in guard formation in front of central supply. This would be the best way to sharpen up new recruits and figure out just who it is who keeps stealing the Hemodent. Ann Rose should be responsible for apprehending the thief, tying him down with the dental floss, and shining the prisma light in his eyes until he confesses. Another problem in the clinic is the mouthwash. In June, with Juniors fresh on the floor, mouthwash is abundant. But no one warns the new recruits that this is a more concentrated solution then the ordinary bathroom variety, and that this concentrate was once used to fuel the Apollo rockets. It is also known to cause malignant change in white rats if they are left floating in it for several minutes. Subsequently, in November once the faculty, staff and students have developed physical dependence on Green Velvet llower lounge slangl, it is suddenly withdrawn prior to first quarter finals. Juniors go through the most severe withdrawal, which can only be reversed by the immediate application of casting units. In fact. one Junior required several million units lintra-recordj to pull out of it. As a senior, he's peddling his left over casting units idisguised as Loyola dental T-shirtsj next to the lab. Symptons of withdrawal include acute Hurler's and Hunter's Syndromes, tardive diskinesia, and creative bowel movement patterns. And as the last drop of Scope disappears, patients are suffering respiratory arrest from the inevitable halitosis. It is apparent to our committee that the situation is grim. Scope inventories must be maintained so that peripheral blood levels of Scope iPeriscope Levelsl and microsomal concentrations of scope will not fluctuate. As was true 50 years ago, instructors continue to be illusive when it comes to having work checked. The present building was especially designed for instructor disappear- ance: many locked closets in which instructors have been suspected of hibernating for months at a time, Of course, some instructors tend to hang around when you don't want them, but the ones who are nearsighted, color blind and give units for being present, rarely step into view in the clinic. On rare occasions, when one is spotted, the multitude of blue coats rushing toward him may cause the building to tilt upon it's foundation. But beware! Don't get too many rare prof signatures in your collection! No one will believe they are authentic and like Ray, of audiovisual fame, one will be out on one's proverbial buns. The denticle staff recommends closed-circuit surveillance of the clinic with a board posting when and where the rare-prof was last seen. The first floor crisis center lDr. Frasco's officel should be open to those with unit shortages for first dibs on rare-prof information. Sightings of rare profs must be accompanied by proof-a polaroid pictures next to a calendar, a notarized signature or a coat button. Equipment failures are a problem but the maintenance staff has tried to keep on top of things. We recommend a control switch be placed on each unit so the bulb in the light will expire at a convenient time-like when instructors check casting margins or centric. Finally, we would be amiss if we overlooked the conglomerate which supplies our school with clocks. We admire their idealism Time isn't important. A couple of clocks work at this time, the rest don't. Some are stopped but most are just plain foolers - as inconsistent as units in perio. A spokesman for the ruling regime told our staff that the clocks that don't work will be stopped. It was assumed that by doing this, those timepieces at least will be accurate twice daily. We know the dental clinic is a wonderful place to work and play, full of joyous greetings and students dancing and smiling in the aisles. Yes, in the immortal words of Dr. Rich Green, lt's a beautiful thing. 13

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FACULTY AND STAFF l..J'Z.'.1'. ' ' ' '..':.., ' I D I