Columbia University School of Dental and Oral Surgery - Dental Columbian Yearbook (New York, NY)

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We consecrate our professional knowledge and skill to the advancement of human welfare, safety, and progress. As we benefit by the technical knowledge and public esteem won for the Profession by Den- tists who labored in the past, we shall ever strive to augment that heritage before passing it on to the Dentists who are to follow. We therefore affirm our guiding purpose: So to live and work as to justify the trust and confidence reposed in the Dental Profession. To carry out professional engagements with generous measure of performance, and with fidel- ity toward those whom we undertake to serve. To foster a spirit of courteous consideration and fraternal cooperation within the Profession. To extend encouragement and a helping hand to younger Dentists and to those in need. To place service before profit, the honor and standing of the Profession before personal advantage, and the Public Welfare above all other considerations. After 55 years of contact as student and practitioner with the problems of the dental pro- fession, I affirm my belief that a faithful adher- ence to the principles stated in Doctor Down- ing ' s definition, and in the above vow will result in a broader success, a happier maturity, and a more contented seniority than can be hoped for if they are not observed. I want to speak of another fact that can profoundly influence the future of every young practitioner who gives heed to it. To be fully occupied and steadily striving for a worthwhile and desirable objective, is the surest road to a contented life that has been discovered. One who constantly carries a sense of having more things to do than he can possibly accomplish, seldom has a discontented moment. The most unhappy man I have ever known was one who said and believed that everything worth while doing in this world had already been accomplished — that all the really worthwhile dis- coveries had been made and all methods of ex- ecution in important fields had been perfected. As I was casting about for a message wor- thy of these pages, I garnered from the writings of Lincoln Steffens the striking concept that no- thing is yet done finally and right — that nothing is yet known positively and completely. If this be only a partial truth, then the whole world is full of things to find out and to do, to do over and to do right. To further quote Steffens: — We have not now and never have had a good (perfect) government — there is not now and nev- er has been a perfectly run railroad, school, news- paper, bank, theater, factory, grocery store. No business has been built, managed, financed as it should be, must be, and will be someday. Again he says: — what is true of business and politics is gloriously true of the professions, the arts and crafts, and the sciences. In science probably 90 per cent of the knowledge has yet to be discovered. Chemistry and physics are little more than a sparkling mass of questions. Progress is rampant in every field. In our own profession you have learned how each dec- ade and even each year has brought forth some new achievement to enable us to deliver better service to humanity. As you have learned of past discoveries you have sensed their profound effects upon the practice and the service values of your profession. My meaning will be plain if you stop for a moment to consider coping with the problems of daily practice without cohesive gold foil, rubber dam, vulcanization, gold cast- ing, present day ceramics, modern denture re- tention, anaesthesia and the x-ray. You have seen desensitization of dentine developing under your own eyes. All your elders will tell you that our field is still full of unsolved problems awaiting solution. It is for the youth of today to find the solution of these problems. Oh you, of ' 37 Columbia Dental, g : rd your- selves and march on to scale the heights we, your elders, have but glimpsed in the distance. As you pass, be assured we stand at salute as you lead the way for those who will follow on after you to try for the peaks which you in turn will see lying on beyond you.

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PROFESSIONAL SUCCESS HENRY W. GILLETT, D.M.D. Professor of Dentistry All young professional men are deeply and rightfully concerned about their chances of suc- cess in the calling they have chosen and have prepared themselves to follow. It is axiomatic that quality of professional service and degree of professional success are intimately related. In the practice of the health service pro- fessions, there are two types of success that may beckon to the young graduate; i.e. mere finan- cial success, and true professional success. A single individual may demonstrate both kinds conspicuously, or he may exhibit either one ef- fectively, and register mere mediocrity or even failure in the other. This latter fate may easily befall the man who concentrates too closely on mere financial return as the yardstick for meas- uring his ideals of success. Over-acute interest in the financial reward for his services may ob- scure his vision as to the best interests of the patient, and lead him to consider his own inter- est paramount. Such a course is incompatible with true professional success. Unless bolstered by exceptional personality, such conduct is iikely to bar one from the attainment of real leader- ship and respect among one ' s confreres, and eventually balk his efforts to enlist real loyalty from his patients. True and lasting professional success must be based on a well established realization that the highest interests of the patient are always paramount — that when the interests of the pro- fessional man conflict, they must always be sub- ordinated to those of the patient. The patient comes to the practitioner for advice and se rvice in a field in which the latter is supposed to have knowledge and skill. The mere fact that he offers his services at all, implies a promise to exercise in good faith the best skill and judgment he is capable of displaying, in order to serve the high- est interests of those who consult him. This being well established in the minds of both parties to the implied contract, then tact, pleasing personality, good judgment, skillfully applied psychology, and evident concern for the patient ' s welfare, will help to plant firmly in the patient ' s mind the confidence essential to secure his full cooperation. Well grounded confidence in one ' s own mas- tery of the principles and technique of the field in which one offers professional service, is an invaluable aid in the presentation of a proposed program. To be able to do this in a manner ef- fective for planting in the patients ' minds that confidence upon which all satisfactory profes- sional relations are established, is a factor of great value in building a practice. To know, and to know that one knows is a priceless qualification for the young professional man. Doubt as to one ' s own knowledge betrays itself to the patient, while assurance of the cor- rectness of one ' s knowledqe lends confidence to the presentation of a proposed program. Con- fidence in the soundness of the advice presented, coupled with evident concern for the interests of the patient, go far to establish trust in the mind of the patient. Not to know, or not to be sure one knows must lead to a weak presentation of one ' s case, and to uncertain execution. Confused concept, bungled presentation, and fumbling execution plant apprehension and fear in the patient ' s mind. Professional success cannot be reared on such a foundation. Postgraduate study, intern- ships, and consultation with those of wider ex- perience are the obvious recourse for betterment in these features. A clear concept of one ' s professional re- sponsibilities — of what one ' s fellow practitioners and the responsible part of the public expect of the younger members of a profession — is of value in shaping the course to be followed. In my files I have a letter from the late Augustus S. Downing, former Assistant Commis- sioner of Education and Director of Professional Education in the State of New York, in which he states his definition of a profession as follows — The word ' profession ' assumes proficient attain- ments in special knowledge as distinguished from mere skill, and the practical application of such special knowledge in use for others as a vocation, distinct from its pursuit for one ' s own use or benefit. For dentistry it implies specialized knowl- edge and peculiar skill in the application of that knowledge, for the benefit of another. I also have a copy of the Vow of Service adopted by the national association of a sister profession. In it I have substituted dental pro- fession and dentists and present it here in order to permit the members of the Senior Class to decide, each for himself, whether it may serve as a guide in all his professional relations. When modified as indicated above, it reads as follows: Vow of Service We dedicate ourselves to the service of mankind as members of the Dental Profession.

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ORAL HISTOLOGY ORAL ANATOMY MOSES DIAMOND D.D.S. Associate Professor of Dentistry M. RUSSEL STEIN D.D.S. Research Assistant JACOB ERBREICH D.M.D. Assistant in Dentistry CHARLES F. BODECKER D.D.S. Professor of Dentistry EDMUND APPLEBAUM D.D.S. Assistant Professor of Dentistry V WILLIAM LF.FKOWITZ D.D.S. Assistant in Dentistry