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

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follows: The minimum academic require- ment for admission, identical with that of the School of Medicine, was two years of approved work in an academic college, the most ad- vanced in dentistry until 1923. The leader- ship, through example, that Columbia has pro- vided in dental education is illustrated by the fact that in 1926 this requirement was adopted by the Board of Regents of the State of New York. Many changes have taken place since the original School of Dentistry was started with two students in the old building of the College of Physicians and Surgeons on 59th Street. The school is so young and some of the changes so recent that their evaluation must be left to the future. It is possible, however, to point out one characteristic of the changes that have occurred, namely that they have consistently followed the principle that dentistry is a branch of general medicine. The aim that has persisted unaltered through changes of name, location and leadership was clearly expressed by William B. Dunning, one of the founders. In 1916 he wrote as follows: The dentist of the future must be a medi- cal man in a sense which has not been ob- tained before. His field is to be, not the mouth, but the human body from that special view- point. He must be a broadly cultivated man, with a university training which shall insure that he continue a student through life. Graduates of the Class of 1952 School of Dental and Oral Surgery Columbia University Gentlemen : In the name of the Dental Alumni Association, may I congratulate you on the completion of your undergraduate professional training. We have stood where you do now and we know that you can face the world with con- fidence. You have many advantages: your training has been superior to ours; the public has accepted dentistry as a health profession; you are older and more mature. Your instructors have done much to fit you for the task ahead. I am sure they have emphasized that you know enough to begin the practice of dentistry and also that you have much to learn — that you may spend the years ahead learning and per- fecting your skills. We of the Alumni offer you our support. We know the setbacks and disappoint- ments that are ahead and we hope we can soften the blows. Through our student liaison committee we are at your service during school years for consultation and advice. To fellow members of our Alumni Association we offer select postgraduate courses at the school and the vast experience of our members. Many are leaders in their fields. We wish you great success in Dentistry and invite you to join us in our Asso- ciation of Dental Alumni, that we may march together as our profession goes for- ward to higher goals. Sincerely yours, John Tynan Flynn, D.D.S. , Pres. Columbia Dental Alumni Association 8

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Operative Dentistry — its foundation In its early beginnings, operative dentistry included the extraction of teeth and pro- cedures necessary for the preservation of na- tural teeth and the placing of artificial crowns. Taken in this broad scope the history of op- erative dentistry could be that of all dentistry. Samuel S. White, in an address he once made, stated, It is impossible to discover when, where, and by whom the operation of filling teeth was introduced. Perhaps so, but this much seems certain; operative dentistry made its greatest stride forward with the works of G. V. Black, so rightfully called the father of modern dentistry. His contributions to scientific procedures in the restoration of teeth, in the fields of scientific cavity prepara- tion, the physical nature and manipulation of materials, the forces of mastication and in many additional fields were the most eminent in the history of operative dentistry. Black in his definition of operative dentistry included, . . . those operations upon the nat- ural teeth and soft parts immediately con- nected with them for the repair of damage in- flicted by caries and the treatment of diseases resulting from exposure or death of the pulps of teeth. To this is added that group of diseases of the peridental membrane beginning at the gingival border. Since Black ' s epoch we have witnessed a steady limitation in the scope of operative dentistry, a phenomenon indicative of our vast increase in knowledge followed by an inevitable tendency toward specialization. To the general practitioner in most communities, these limitations are largely academic. The dentist designs his restorations for mastica- tory efficiency, compatability with endodontal and peridontal tissues, occlusal harmony and esthetics. Operative procedures occupy an im- portant part of a practice devoted directly to the maintenance of oral health and indirectly with systemic and psychological well being. The interrelation ' existing here is one not to be ignored. In operative dentistry as with all phases of dentistry the mouth must be con- sidered in its entirety and as a functional part of the body as a whole. It is with the evolution of this latter concept that modern dental his- tory is written. It is, in a sense, the gradual maturation of a philosophy and in the process dentistry rises in stature as a profession. 10