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

Page 19 text:

My House Is Bigger Than Your House THEODOR ROSEBURY, D.D.S., Assistant Professor of Bacteriology Certain dentists I know tell me that they have observed an attitude assumed how and then by occasional medical men — practitioners, teachers, or even students — which suggests with or without subtlety that dentists be- long to a somewhat lower order of living things than physicians. This would seem to be one of many human prejudices which stem from imponder- ables — tradition, dignity, respectability — and have their roots in the virtually universal human need to feel large in one ' s own eyes, and hence bigger, better or nobler than someone else. In a free space, apart from the vapor pressure of either profession, such a prejudice would spontaneously evap- orate; logically, that is, it comes quickly to nothing. Medicine is older than dentistry only in organization. Both professions trace back to a common calling whose end, the alleviation of suffering, was always laudable, but whose means were sometimes a shade less than respectable. Each now fills a place which society deems essential, in a world whose awareness of its needs is growing apace. Each is but a servant of that society, valuable in proportion only to its competence. From the viewpoint of the man in the street, of course, to distinguish in importance between a toothache and a bellyache is ridiculous. But, however illogical, the prejudice seems to be real, and it poses a delicate problem. It appears that certain physicians regard the dentist with more or less gentle contempt, through the lorgnette of a dowager ' s dignity, and by sundry acts of commission and omission teach their sons to do like- wise. And the dentist, reacting to a difficult situation, accepts the stigma with Christian modesty — and so confirms it — or rears up in hysterical denial — and so proves it. Human dignity is like a hobo ' s shack, leaning on any available support, built of whatever is at hand, crazy, insecure, but home and castle withal. Man ' s earth is the center of the universe, his kind the elect of God, himself the pivot around which all things revolve. Modestly he names himself the superior of all other animals, his world the only one, his nation the greatest, his race the purest, his city the best — and all others, being inferior in greater or less degree, are just to that degree contemptible. That every man feels the need to be king over a domain however limited bespeaks his essential frailty, and is pardonable. He wants to believe that he is of use to others besides himself; if he can manage it he wants to believe that the world needs him badly. He likes superlatives (such as medicine is the noblest of the professions ); but in a pinch comparatives will serve. So some physicians elevate their chins to dentists; dentists arch their eye- brows to veterinarians and pharmacists; all o f them are apt to feel nobler than lawyers; and lo! the poor accountant. There are any number of similar series, as witness mathematicians, physicists, chemists, biologists, psychologists; or, in a more limited field, ophthalmologists, oculists, optome- Fifteen

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Oral Diagnosis DANIEL E. ZISKIN D.D.S. Associate Professor of Dentistry r i rik f! HAROLD J. LEONARD JOSEPH O FOURNIER LEWIS R. STOVVE S. N. ROSENSTEIN D.D.S., A.B. D.D.S. D.D.S. B.S., D.D.S. Professor ol Dentistry Assist. Prof, of Dentistry Assoc. Prof, of Dentistry Assist. Prof, of Dentistry EDWARD V. ZEGARELLI A.B., D.D.S. Assist, in Dentistry HENRY J. POWELL B.S.. D.D.S. Assist, in Dentistry

Page 20 text:

trists, opticians. They range from royally to riffraff, present company being, of course, excepted; and no man, indeed, is so low but his dignity will find him someone lower. You adopt your standard of comparison, naturally, with the end in view and the conclusion foregone. Logic has no place in the matter, for you can ' t live without the plum of self-respect, and if it doesn ' t grow in your own back yard you must reach out and pluck your neighbor ' s. Later it may not be difficult to convince your neighbor, with plausible, if not quite accurate, reasoning, that the plum was yours by right. If he acquiesces, you stand confirmed; if he balks, he is an unpleasant fellow who clearly didn ' t deserve the plum in the first place, and your case is proved. Which brings us back to the dentist, and the scale upon which here and there a physician places himself airily as noblest. So much is explained, if not condoned. But the dentist, obliged to associate with the fellow at close range, finds his own dignity assailed by implication, if not more directly. He can accept the stigma thus applied, or reject it, or ignore it. He may choose, in other words, between three horns of a nice dilemma. It is clear that to accept it is not only illogical but unhappy, since to do so confirms and in time aggravates the stigma. To reject it, on the other hand, is a delicate matter. A denial recognizes and may at once give standing to the allegation which called it forth. In this instance, because of the peculiar nature of the case, the more vigorous the denial becomes the more likely it is to be retroactive. Here the very foundation of the dentist ' s lean-to is threatened, yet he must fend the attack with good humor or see his shack collapse. A superior smile, if he can manage to turn one on under these trying circumstances, may prove his best defense; but even so it must be accurately adjusted. If it comes out a sheepish grin or a sneer the point is lost. Perhaps the dentist had best ignore the thing altogether. The logic of the matter may well be his refuge; but it will not be enough merely to go about his business as usual, or worse, to recede into smug self-assu.ance. While neither affirming nor denying the allegation, let him look ra.her to the real standard by which all human callings are properly judged, and act accordingly. The real standard, to repeat, is competence. Whether it be in dentistry or medicine or bricklaying or any other socially useful service, competence is at once the only stable foundation for self-respact and, in aggregate, the only genuine criterion of nobility in human service. It is not the tool in a man ' s hand that counts, whether it be the surgeon ' s knife, the dentist ' s drill, the carpenter ' s hammer, or that amazingly skillful fellow ' s steamshovel; nor is it the thing he uses it on. It is the way he uses it, and the good he does by using it. Let us mind our own business, and mind it well. Sixteen